1936] MAMMALS OF OEEGON 335 



and a small fish known only by its bones in seal stomachs. Occa- 

 sionally, Mr. Lucas says, salmon, herring, and rockfish are eaten. 

 For full accounts of the fur seals refer to the History of North 

 American Pinnipeds (J. A. Allen, 1880), Reports of the Fur Seal 

 Commission, United States Treasury Department, and numerous 

 bulletins of the United States Bureau of Fisheries. 



Family PHOCIDAE: Hair Seals 



PHOCA RICHARDII RICHAKDII (GRAY) 



HAIR SEAL; HARBOR SEAL; SPOTTED SEAL; LEOPARD SEAL 



H alley on richardii Gray, Zool. Soc. London Proc., p. 28, 1864. 



Type locality. Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada. 



General characters. Form prostrate; body tapering both ways from the 

 middle; neck short; no external ears (pi. 47, B) ; molars %, small and serrate; 

 feet modified for swimming ; anterior finlike and held at sides ; posterior pad- 

 dlelike, not reversible, and projecting permanently backward beyond short tail ; 

 five nails on each foot; eyes large; hair short and coarse, but smooth and 

 glistening. Color varying, from mainly whitish to almost black, but usually 

 much spotted and mottled with brown and black on a gray or yellowish base, 

 darker on back, paler below ; young at birth woolly, whitish, or yellowish. 



Measurements. Total length of adults said to be 5 to 6 feet; sexes not 

 very different in size. Weights are given as 60 to 100 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. The Pacific coast from California to 

 Alaska, limits of range not well established. Formerly abundant 

 and still common along the coast of Oregon, in the bays and well 

 into the mouths of the larger rivers. Found by Lewis and Clark 

 in 1805 and 1806 and by many subsequent travelers in the Columbia 

 River up to The Dalles and still occasionally seen in the lower part 

 of the river. 



General habits. In summer the hair seals spend much of their 

 time basking on the beaches, close to the water's edge, but little is 

 known of their migrations and movements from place to place in 

 the ocean. They are intelligent and very shy and difficult to ap- 

 proach on land and quickly disappear in the water if alarmed. 

 They are, to a slight degree, social in habits but do not gather in 

 large colonies nor emit loud sounds. Still, according to Captain 

 Scammon, they have considerable vocal range among themselves. It 

 is generally believed that they gather where the fish are most 

 abundant, but there is a great lack of definite information as to food 

 and breeding habits. 



Breeding habits. These seals are reported by Ernest P. Walker 

 as breeding along the coast of southeastern Alaska, but there seem 

 to be no records of their breeding on the Oregon coast. 



Food habits. It is generally supposed that the food of these seals 

 is mainly fish, but more definite data should be gathered by actual 

 examination of their stomach contents after feeding and under vary- 

 ing conditions. On St. George Island, Alaska, Lucas found crabs, 

 squid or cuttlefish, and bones of codfish in their stomachs. Digestion 

 is rapid, however, and generally their stomachs are found to be 

 empty. 



Of 35 stomachs of this seal examined by Scheifer from various 

 points in Puget Sound, Wash., 8 were empty and 13 stomachs of 

 young contained only milk. Fourteen of the adults contained solid 



