336 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



food. Of these 1 contained salmon, 1 some small salmon or trout, 

 and 12 contained traces of herring, tomcod, sculpin, flounder, shiner, 

 skate, starfish, squid, octopus, shrimp, and crab. This meager con- 

 tribution to our knowledge of the food habits of the seal is im- 

 portant, as it gives actual data on which to base some conclusions 

 as to their economic status. Scheffer (1928, p. 10) concludes that 

 instead of the food of these seals being entirely or largely salmon, 

 as is so often claimed, it is largely of a harmless or possibly a bene- 

 ficial nature, and may well be an advantage to the salmon industry. 

 Economic status. Undoubtedly the harbor seals feed extensively 

 on fish, but we should know what kinds and in what amounts the 

 fish are eaten at various seasons of the year, as well as amount and 

 kind of other food eaten, before the seals are destroyed, for they have 

 certain values also worth considering. In many places they add an 

 interesting form of wildlife to the shores and beaches, and they 

 would be far more attractive if more abundant and less timid. Lo- 

 cally they have furnished an important staple of food and clothing, 

 and commercially they have a money value in their beautiful skins, 

 considerably used as rugs, couch covers, and to some extent as furs. 



ORDER CETACEA: WHALES AND PORPOISES 

 Suborder MYSTICETI: Toothless Cetaceans 



Family BALAENIDAE: Right and Eowhead Whales; Whalebone Whales 



EUBALAENA SIEBOLDII (GRAY) 



PACIFIC RIGHT WHALE 



Balaena sieloldii Gray, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (3) 14: 349, 1864. 



Type locality. Coast of Japan and northwest coast of North America. 



General characters. A large whale with very large arched head and wide 

 mouth (pi. 48, A), no teeth but two great slabs of whalebone with fringed edges 

 for straining out the minute water animals for food. No back fin nor throat 

 grooves; front feet modified as side paddles, or flippers for steering and bal 

 ancing; tail broadly expanded into powerful flukes for swimming; head aboui 

 one-third of total length ; eyes very small, close to angle of mouth ; no externa 

 ears; spiracles or nostrils two, separate on top of head about 16 feet back of 

 tip of upper jaw; whalebone about 8 feet long, blackish in color; skin thick 

 and hairless, over heavy layer of fat; color mainly black or blackish all over 



Measurements. Total length about 60 to 70 feet, sexes varying but little in 

 size; side flippers about 8 feet long; tip of snout to spiracles (blowholes) about 

 16 feet (Scammon) ; baleen 7 to 8% feet long. 



Distribution and abundance. In former years, according to Scam- 

 mon, the right whales were found on the coast of Oregon and occa- 

 sionally in large numbers, but their chief resort was farther north 

 among the islands along the coast of British Columbia and Alaska 

 in Bering and Okhotsk Seas, and south to Japan on the west anc 

 occasionally along the coast of California and Baja California on the 

 east side of the North Pacific. There is no record of their passing 

 south of the Tropics. Their migrations and breeding grounds are 

 little known, and their numbers have been greatly reduced through 

 long years of commercial whaling. 



General habits. These great whales are entirely pelagic, with 

 seasonal migrations not well defined; in spring they resort in con- 

 siderable numbers to the shores of the North Pacific and in wintei 



