332 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



of these valuable food fishes. Besides salmon the remains of halibut, 

 herring, flatfish, sea bass, and dogfish have been found in their stom- 

 achs, and it is evident that they feed upon whatever small animal 

 life is most abundant and at hand (Greenwood, Newcombe, and 

 Fraser, 1918, p. 17) . There is still some question as to whether they 

 are seriously detrimental to the fishing industries, except as they oc- 

 casionally get entangled in the fish nets and cause some trouble and 

 annoyance and much antipathy on the part of the fishermen. Sci- 

 entists like Evermann, Starks, and Eowley, who have made careful 

 studies of the evidence, have expressed grave doubts of the injurious 

 effects of sea lions on the supply of food fishes. 



Economio status. There has long been controversy between com- 

 mercial fishermen and those interested in the preservation of all 

 harmless wildlife, but the evidence of serious destruction of food and 

 game fishes has not been produced to convict these interesting animals 

 of high crime against man's best interests. Still they have been de- 

 stroyed in such numbers as to greatly deplete the herds and wipe out 

 many large breeding colonies. 



Sea lions have a commercial value for skins and oil, and in many 

 places where they are in the habit of lying on islands near shore, 

 they are of great interest to the public. Thousands of dollars are 

 spent to have a few in a zoological park, but the interest there is 

 insignificant compared with that of a roaring herd on their native 

 rocks. 



ZALOPHUS CALIFOKNIANUS (LESSON) 



CALIFORNIA SEA LION 



Otaria californiana Lesson, Diet. Class. Hist. Nat. 13 : 420, 1828. 



Type locality. California. 



General characters. Size much less than that of Steller's sea lion, but form 

 and general appearance about the same; rostrum narrow; skull with high 

 arched sagittal crest in old males, none in females ; molars %, small and pointed 

 and evenly spaced ; hair short and coarse without underfur. Color dark brown, 

 fading to light brown or yellowish brown, blackish in appearance when wet. 

 Voice a shrill, far-reaching howl or hoarse bark, often heard for a long distanc* 

 above the roar of the surf. 



Measurements. Adult male: Total length (nose to tip of tail, not flippers), 

 about 7 to 8 feet; tail, 2 to 4 inches; ear, 1% inches. Adult female: Total 

 length about 6 feet. Weight of bulls 800 to 1,000 pounds ; of cows 500 to 7( 

 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. Pacific coast from Mexico north 

 British Columbia. Common on many points and islands along th< 

 California coast and recorded on the coast of Washington and 

 southern British Columbia (Greenwood, Newcombe, and Fraser, 

 1918, p. 10) , but there are few records and no recent specimens f roi 

 the coast section of Oregon. Still it is probable that they are moi 

 common here than is generally supposed, but have been overlooked, 

 and that some of the records attributed to Steller's sea lion "~ rt 

 really based on the California species. 



A few bones of this species appear among the greater number oi 

 Steller's sea-lion bones in the shell mounds on the beaches near 

 Netarts in Tillamook County, Oreg., and a further examination of 

 these prehistoric kitchen middens will doubtless throw more light on 

 the relative abundance of such animals along the coast. A peck of 

 bone fragments gathered by Mrs, Stanley G, Jewett and son, Stanley 



