260 



MAMMALS AND BIRDS OF THE NORTH PACIFIC 



other of their former haunts the otters have, however, long since disappeared, 

 and as they are being constantly hunted for the sake of their valuable fur, 

 there is a probability that the species will be exterminated at no very distant 

 date. 



Unlike the common seal, which, as mentioned in a previous 

 chapter, is common to the two oceans, the elephant-seal, or sea- 

 elephant {Macrorhinus leoninus), has no representative in the Atlantic. It con- 

 siderably exceeds the walrus in bulk, and is the largest of all the members of the 

 seal tribe. In addition to its huge bulk, this seal is specially distinguished by the 



Sea-Elephant. 



NORTHERN SEA-ELEPHANTS. 



dilatable trunk of the old males, as well as by the circumstance that the first and 

 fifth toes of the hind-flippers are much longer than the rest, a feature in which the 

 species resembles the crested seal. All the hind-toes are devoid of nails. Elephant- 

 seals are found on both sides of the equator, but are much more numerous in the 

 south, the typical northern species, first discovered by Lord Anson on Juan Fer- 

 nandez, making annual migrations from that island to the coast of California. 

 Considering the numbers in which this seal formerly occurred on the Calif ornian 

 coast, the information concerning its habits is singularly meagre. Apparently 

 elephant-seals inhabited the area between the 25th and the 35th degree of N. 

 latitude ; and previous to the year 1852 were common on the Cerros Islands, 

 where, in spite of their bulk and slow movements, they were accustomed to go 



