OCEANIC MAMMALS 445 



1815; Callorhinus alascanus Jordan, Fur Seals and Fur-seal Islands of North 

 Pacific Ocean, pt. 1, p. 45, 1898; Jordan and Clark, ibid., pt. 3, p. 2, 1899; 

 Callotaria ursina cynocephala Stejneger, Georg Wilhelm Steller, p. 285, 1936; 

 Callorhinus ursina cynocephala Hall, California Fish and Game, vol. 26, no. 1, p. 

 76, Jan. 1940. 



FIGS.: Allen, J. A., 1870b, pi. 2, pi. 3, figs. 1-8 (skull and teeth); Nelson, 1916, col. fig., 

 p. 432. 



The northern or Alaskan fur seal of the Pribilof Islands in 

 Bering Sea is believed to differ from those on the Commander 

 and Kurile Islands of the Asiatic coasts in its "stouter, broader 

 head," the thicker neck, the "prevalence of warm brown shades 

 in the coloration of the female and the young males," and in 

 the more silvery color of the gray pups. "The fur in alascanus 

 is also of superior quality and exhibits sufficient difference to 

 make it possible for dealers to distinguish by this means alone 

 whether the skins come from the Commander or Pribilof herds " 

 (Jordan and Clark, 1899). 



In their southward migrations from the breeding rookeries 

 on the Pribilof Islands, these seals are believed to trend along 

 the coasts of the Alaskan Peninsula and British Columbia, 

 going as far south as the coasts of northern California to the 

 vicinity of Point Conception? Grinnell (1933) quotes an 

 instance of its occurrence near Monterey in 1925. The usual 

 season of appearance on the California coast is from December 

 10 to April. With the coming of spring "they leave the north- 

 west coast and many of them travel steadily across more than 

 two thousand miles of the North Pacific. For days at a time 

 they swim through a roaring gale-swept sea, under dense low- 

 hanging clouds, and with unerring certainty strike certain 

 passages in the Aleutian Islands, through which they press to 

 their breeding grounds, more than 100 miles beyond, on the 

 small, fog-hidden Pribilof Islands." The extraordinary tenacity 

 that the fur seals show in their return year by year to their 

 traditional breeding grounds explains the preservation of 

 slight differences in the populations of the different colonies. 



The old males arrive at the islands as early as April and 

 establish themselves on the beaches, and they are soon followed 

 in May and June by the females. Each adult male gathers 

 around him a harem, varying in size up to as many as 40 or 

 even more females, and until the end of the breeding season 

 remains at his chosen station, driving off other neighboring 

 males, so that the groups become somewhat spaced. After 



