460 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XVI, 



use of the material under his charge, consisting of specimens 

 from the coast of Alaska, the Commander Islands, and the 

 eastern coast of Kamschatka; and to Mr. Witmer Stone of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and Dr. 

 Horace Jayne, Director of the Wistar Institute of Anatomy 

 and Biology of Philadelphia, for the large series of seal skulls 

 collected by Mr. E. A. Mcllhenny at Point Barrow; and to 

 Mr. Outram Bangs, Curator of Mammals at the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass., for several skulls of 

 special interest. I am also greatly indebted to Dr. L. Stejn- 

 eger ior field notes and measurements of the seals collected 

 by him at the Commander Islands and on the coast of Kams- 

 chatka, without which and the specimens collected by him 

 there would have been little basis for the present paper. 



I must confess much disappointment in finding so little 

 material available for the study of the seals of the Pacific 

 coast of North America. Applications made to the three lead- 

 ing Natural History Museums of the Pacific coast for skulls 

 of California seals resulted only in the information that these 

 institutions had none in their collections. It was also a 

 matter of surprise to find that the U. S. National Museum had 

 so few skulls of seals from Alaska and the Pribilof and other 

 Alaskan Islands, considering the large number of naturalists 

 and collectors who have visited this region in its interests in 

 recent years. The only material available for examination 

 from south of Puget Sound consists of one skull and one 

 mounted specimen from the Santa Barbara Islands. 1 There 

 are two immature specimens (and some fragments of others) 

 from the vicinity of Puget Sound, two skulls only from Alaska 

 south of St. Michaels, a small series of quite young skulls from 

 St. Michaels, and three from the Pribilof Islands. Further- 

 more, none of this material is identified as to sex. In animals 

 which vary so greatly with age and sex as do the seals of the 

 present group, the inadequacy of such material as I have 

 been able to bring together, as regards both quantity and 

 quality, for more than a superficial view of the field is readily 



1 As these pages are passing through the press I am in receipt, from Dr. C. Hart 

 Mernam, Chief of the BioJogical Survey of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, of four 

 skulls of Phoca from San Geronimo Island, Lower California, as noted below, p. 493. 



