SYNOPSIS OF PINNIPEDS. 387 



III.— Sub-family CYSTOPHORIN^^. 



IX.— Genus CYSTOPHORA Nilson. 

 15. Hooded seal, Cystophora cristaia (Erxl). 



Hahixat: Noitli Atlantic iiiid Arctic seas. It ranges eastward from 

 Greenland to Spitzbergcn, and along' the Arctic coast of Enrope, but is 

 rarely found soutli ofsoutbern j^orway in Europe or soutli of Newfound- 

 laud on the American side of tlie Atlantic, though sometiuies straggling 

 south in winter to ]S^>va Scotia aud Maine, and even to New York. 



Tliis species is known commoidy in sealers' parlance as the hood- 

 seal, bonnet-seal, bladder-nose, and bladder-seal, from the inflatable 

 sac covering the nose in the adult male. It is a large animal, and for 

 this reason is much hunted for its oil. It is migratory and pelagic, pre- 

 ferriug the drift ice of the high seas to the vicinity of the land. It 

 brings forth its youug late in March, for this purpose resorting to the 

 floating ice. In habits and geographical distribution it thus resembles 

 the harp-seal. Though found on neighboring ice floes, the two species 

 are said to rarely associate. 



In the annual sealing voyages to the sealing grounds of the North 

 Atlantic and Jan Mayen waters many hood-seals are taken along 

 with the harps, but, owing to their much smaller numbers, they usually 

 form no very important part of the catch. 



X.— Genus MACRORHINUS F. Cuv. 

 16. California SEA-ELEniANT, Macrovhlnns anrju-'itirostris {(Mil). ■ 



Habitat : Formerly coast and islands of California, from Cape Lazaro, 

 Lower California (latitude 24° 46'), to Point Reyes (latitude 38°), a little 

 to the north of San Francisco; now nearly extinct. 



It seems not improbable that the California sea-elephant formerly 

 ranged southward to the Cliametly and Tres Marias 

 Islands, ofl" the western coast of Mexico, in latitude 21° MSSaiid"'^ ^^^^ 

 to 23°. At least seals were reported by Dampier as 

 occurriug there in 1080, but unfortunately his account is insufficient to 

 render evident the exact species seen. There is, however, good evi- 

 dence that sea-elephants were tolerably abundant during the tirst half 

 of the x)resent century at nearly all of the islands of the Pacitic coast, 

 from about latitude 25° to 38°, aud that their subsequent practical ex- 

 termination is due to the merciless slaughter of the professional seal 

 hunter. 



Ca^jtain Scammon, writing about 1852 (see J. Ross Browne's "Re- 

 sources of the Pacific Slope," App., p. 129), says: 

 " Seals and Sea elephants once basked ui)on the shores scammon"^ captain 

 of this isolated spot [Cerros Island] in vast numbers, 

 and in years x)assed its surrounding shores teemed with sealers, sea- 

 elephant and sea-otter hunters; the remains of their rude stone houses 

 are still to be seen in many couvenient places, which were once the 

 habitations of these hardy men." He says, in another connection 

 (Marine Mammalia, p. 1L7): " Our observations on the Sea-Elephants 

 of California go to show that they have been found in much larger 

 numbers from February to June than during other months of the ^earj 



