FAUNA OF THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS AND ALASKA PENINSULA 307 



Manhattan had reported to Captain Shoemaker of the Revenue 

 Cutter Service the discovery of a new fur seal rookery in the 

 Aleutian Islands, on "Bouldyer Island." It was stated that Lieu- 

 tenant Berthodd had approached the herd closely enough to ob- 

 serve that none of the seals had been branded. 



In 1938, Scheffer was told by Bill Dirks, of Atka, that his father 

 lived on Buldir Island for a month in 1900 and had killed several 

 fur seals there. He also said that A. C. Goss visited the north- 

 west end of Buldir in 1920 and had reported the presence of fur 

 seals and sea lions. 



We tried to find fur seals on Buldir, but we found only a sea 

 lion rookery on a beach of an offshore islet. However, we were 

 unable to make a landing. When I mentioned this sea lion rookery 

 to the chief at Atka, he was not surprised. He stated that he 

 knew of the presence of sea lions there, and he added that the fur 

 seals would be there too. 



In spite of our negative findings, all the evidence seems to show 

 that, at one time, the fur seal was to some extent a resident as well 

 as a migrant in the Aleutians. 



Family PHOCIDAE 



Phoca vltulina: Harbor Seal 

 Phoca yitulina richardii 

 Attu: Ish'-u-gich 

 Atka: Ish'-u 

 Aleut (dialect?) : Isv.kh (Geoghegan) 



Hisook (Wetmore, at Morzhovoi Bay) 

 Ishooik (Osgood). 

 Russian, Siberia (Gichiga) : Ola (Buxton) 

 Russian, lkhotsk, Ayan, Pengina, and Marcova: Largha (Buxton) 



It is interesting to note that Nelson (1887, p. 262) gives Ish-6- 

 gik as the Eskimo name for the ringed seal (Pusa hispida), which 

 is extremely rare, or absent, in the Aleutians, and is not distin- 

 guished from Phoca vitulina by the Aleuts. 



The harbor seal occurs all along the southern Alaskan coast, 

 and throughout the length of the Aleutians. We did not find it to 

 be particularly abundant, but we sighted single animals or small 

 groups here and there. In 1925, it was rather common along the 

 Bering Sea side of Alaska Peninsula. 



In his revision of the Genus Phoca, Doutt (1942, p. 120) identi- 

 fied specimens of this race from Alaska Peninsula between Katmai 

 and Kanatak and between Portage Bay and Becharof Lake, from 

 Izembek Bay, Nagai Island in the Shumagins, from Kagamil 



