ARTICLE 



By Dr. J. A. ALLEN. 



Curator of the American Museum of Natural History. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following paper lias been i^repared at the request of the Secre- 

 tary of State of the United States by Dr. J. A. Allen, 

 by iirofession a naturalist and a specialist in mammal- natajaif^t ^etc^'aiirt 

 og'y and ornithology, and at present and for the last cmatormtheAm'oii- 

 seven years curator of these departments in the Araeri- '^^^ siXr™ etc^'^*" 

 ican Museum of Natural History, in New York City; 

 formery for many years curator at the Agassiz Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, at Cambridge, Mass. Dr. Allen has given 

 special attention to the study of the pinniiiedia, or seal 

 tribe, for twenty-live years. In 1870 he published a paper on the fur-seals 

 and sea-lions of the northwestcoastof North America entitled " On the 

 Eared Seals {Otariidw), with Detailed Descriptions of the North Pacific 

 Species," etc. (Bull. Mus. Conip. Zool., ii, pp. 1-108, Pll. i-iii, Aug., 

 1870),andin 1880 a monograph of the North American Pinnipedia entitled 

 "History of North American Pinnipeds; a Monograph of the Wal- 

 ruses, Sea-Lions, Sea-Bears, and Seals of North America" (8°, pp 

 i-xvi, 1-785, 1880, forming Vol. xii of the Miscel. Publ. of the Hay den 

 U. S. Geolg. Survey), and in 1887 a paper on "The West Indian Seal 

 {Monachus trojricalis),^^ (BuU. Am. Mus. Nat. History, ii, pp. 1-31, Pll. 

 i-iv, April, 1887). 



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