ALLEN : mammalia: otariid^. 135 



the two localities. Until this has been done it seems premature to treat 

 the two forms as specifically different. 



Arctocephalus townsendi Merriam. 



(Plates XVIII. XIX and XX, Skulls.) 



\ArctocephalHs sp.] Allen, Gill and Merriam, Fur Seal Arbitration, Append, 

 to Case of the United States, I, 1892, 586. Announcement of the 

 discovery of a species of ArdocepJiahis on Guadalupe Island, Lower 

 California. 

 Arctocephalus sp. nov. Allen, ibid., 373, making the same announcement, 

 with historical comment on the occurrence of Fur Seals off the coast 

 of Mexico, Lower California and southern California. 

 Arctocephalus townsendi Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XI, 1897, 

 pp. 175-178, original description. — Townsend, Fur Seals and Fur- 

 Seal Islands N. Pac. Ocean (Jordan), III, 1899, 269-272, habits and 

 statistics of capture. 

 In the general form the skull of A. townsendi is much nearer that of 

 A. philippii than that of A. anstralis. In cranial characters townsendi 

 differs from philippii much as philippii does from anstralis, but the dis- 

 tinctive features of philippii are carried less far in townsendi, and other 

 differences are added. Especially distinctive are : (i) the greater narrow- 

 ness of the skull, particularly of the rostral portion; (2) the much nar- 

 rower and more depressed palate ; (3) the more flattened audital bullae ; 

 and (4) the somewhat smaller size and slenderer form of the skull. The 

 external differences are not known, A. townsendi being thus far known 

 only from more or less imperfect skulls. 



I am indebted to Dr. C. Hart Merriam, the describer of the species, for 

 an excellent photograph of the palatal aspect of the type skull (an old 

 male), here reproduced (natural size) in Plate XVIII, and a "young adult" 

 female skull, here figured (natural size) in Plates XIX and XX. A com- 

 parison of Plate XVIII (palatal view) with Plate XVII (palatal views, ^ 

 nat. size) will serve to illustrate some of the striking differences that dis- 

 tinguish A. townsendi from both A. philippii and A. australis. For fur- 

 ther descriptive details it is sufficient to transcribe Dr. Merriam's original 

 description, as follows : 



•' Type Locality. — Guadalupe Island, off Lower California. Type No. 



