1 9 o 2.] Allen, North Pacific Phocida. 477 



although the region to the eastward was traversed and the 

 'Vega' wintered off the northeast coast of Siberia. 



Although there is no satisfactory evidence of the occurrence 

 of Phoca grcenlandica in the North Pacific nor in Bering Sea, 

 the species is included partly for the reason of its previous 

 records from this region, and partly for the purpose of calling 

 attention to the unsatisfactory evidence of its claim to a 

 place in the list of North Pacific seals. 



4. Phoca (Pusa) hispida (Schreber). 1 

 RINGED SEAL. 



Phoca foetida NORDQUIST, Vega-Exped. Vetensk. Takt. II, 1883, 104 

 (Bering Island). MURDOCH, Rep. Point Barrow Exped. 1885, 95 (Point 

 Barrow). NELSON & TRUE, Rep. Nat. Hist. Coll. Alaska, 1887, 261 

 (Unalakleet and St. Michaels, Alaska). STEJNEGER, Bull. U. S. Fish 

 Comm. XVI, 1896, 21 (Commander Islands). STONE, Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sci. Phila. 1900, 44 (Point Barrow). 



This species is abundantly represented in collections from 

 Point Barrow, where it is reported by Murdoch as common at 

 all seasons. Stone records 28 specimens (skulls) as collected 

 there by the Mcllhenny expedition. There are also speci- 

 mens in the U. S. National Museum from St. Michaels, Alaska, 

 and Plover Bay, Siberia, and Stejneger has recorded it from 

 the Commander Islands. Specimens were collected for the 

 American Museum by Mr. Buxton in the Okhotsk Sea, which 

 differ in smaller size and weaker dentition from the Point 

 Barrow specimens, and seem to represent a recognizable 

 subspecies, described below. The Point Barrow specimens, 

 collected by Mcllhenny, which, through the kindness of the 

 authorities of the Wistar Institute of Philadelphia, I have 

 been able to examine, agree well with nearly as many Green- 

 land (Davis Strait and Baffin Bay) specimens in the American 

 Museum. 



Phoca hispida presents a wide range of purely individual 

 variation in the size and the structure of the teeth. The 

 teeth vary in size in different specimens of the same sex from 

 the same locality by fifty per cent, the teeth in some speci- 



1 Phoca hispida Schreber (pi. Ixxxvi, 1775) has one year priority over Phoca jaetida 

 Fabricius (O. F. M tiller's Zool. Dan. Prod., p. viii, 1776). 



