400 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



nachus schauiiislaiidi, after its discoverer. 

 He found that it differed little from the 

 two other known species of the genus, in- 

 habiting respectively the Mediterranean and 

 Caribbean seas. No other specimens appear 

 to have reached any other museum until the 

 return of the "Thetis" from the Laysan Is- 

 lands in 1913, when the three specimens ob- 

 tained by Mr. Bailey were received at the 

 United States National Museum in Wash- 

 ington. 



The genus Monachus is of especial inter- 

 est on account of the isolation of its three 

 modern representatives, all of which seem 

 doomed to early extinction. The monk seal 

 of what we may call the Mediterranean area 

 appears not to have been very numerous 

 within historic times. It is known to have 

 occurred formerly in small numbers on both 

 the European and the African coasts of this 

 inland sea, and it also has been taken at 

 the Madeira and Canary islands. The early 

 naturalists apjsear to have had only scanty 

 knowledge of it, and few modern museums 

 can count it among their treasures. It was 

 first formally introduced into technical natu- 

 ral history as Pltoca monachus by Hermann 

 in 1779, and separated generically from 

 Plioca by Fleming in 1822 as the sole repre- 

 sentative of his genus Monachus. 



The only known West Indian seal forms 

 the second species (in respect to its intro- 

 duction into scientific literature) referable 

 to this genus, it having been described by 

 J. E. Gray, of the British Museum, in 1850, 

 from an imperfect skin "from Jamaica," as 

 Phoca tropicalis, and referred by him sixteen 

 years later to the genus Monachus. This 

 species, however, remained virtually un- 

 known scientifically for the next twenty 

 years, but nevertheless it has a most inter- 

 esting and unique history, inasmuch as it 

 was met with by Columbus near the end of 

 August, 1494, as he approached the southern 

 coast of Hispaniola, where his sailors killed 

 eight of them for fooil.i Although this seal 

 was abundant in the sixteenth and seven- 

 teenth centuries in the Caribbean Sea and 

 southern part of the Gulf of Mexico, from 

 the Bahama Islands westward to the islets 

 off the coast of Yucatan, it was nearly de- 

 stroyed for its oil in the eighteenth century 



^ See BuUctin Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. II, p. 23, 

 April, 1887. 



and has since been on the verge of exter- 

 mination throughout its former range.2 It 

 is still reported as occasionally seen or cap- 

 tured near Cuba and among the keys and 

 islets southeast of the Bahamas. 



The third species of Monachus was first 

 made known, as stated above, from the Lay- 

 san Islands, and an account of its distribu- 

 tion and habits, so far as known, is given 

 by Mr. Bailey in the present number of the 

 Journal. 



These three forms of monk seal present a 

 striking similarity in size, coloration, and 

 structure, and thus show the strong persis- 

 tence of characters inherited from a remote 

 ancestor. As their present distribution is 

 restricted to warm temperate and subtropi- 

 cal latitudes, interest is added to the ques- 

 tion of how the Laysan seal reached the 

 Pacific Ocean. 



All the nearest relatives of Monachus are 

 northern, inhabiting at present only north 

 temperate and arctic littorals ; it seems, 

 therefore, unquestionable that its place of 

 origin is northern, and probably not far 

 from the present Mediterranean region. The 

 Caribbean species beyond doubt was derived 

 from North Atlantic stock. In what way it 

 reached the West Indian region is open to 

 speculation, where its presence has been as- 

 sumed as evidence of a former land bridge 

 between the Antilles and the Mediterranean 

 region, before, however, it was known that 

 still anotner species existed in the Pacific 

 Ocean. It was suggested by its describer 

 that the Laysan seal had reached its present 

 home by way of a "northwest passage," or 

 arctic route, which appears wholly improb- 

 able. It seems more reasonable to assume 

 its derivation troiu the Caribbean area, it 

 finding a way westward into the Pacific dur- 

 ing a temporary submergence of the Isthmian 

 region of Central America, probably in pre- 

 Glacial times. 



- The known general history of this seal will be 

 found summarized, together with a detailed ac- 

 count of its structure and relationships, based on 

 the fine series of specimens exhibited in the mam- 

 mal hall of the American Museum, collected at The 

 Triangles, a group of rocky islets off the coast of 

 Yucatan, in an article by the present writer, en- 

 titled: "The West Indian Seal (Monachus tropi- 

 ralis Gray)." BuUfitin Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 

 Vol. II. pp. 1-3-4, pis. i-iv, April 2.5, 1887. (Adult 

 and young, skull and principal parts of skeleton 

 figured.) 



