1902.] Allen, North Pacific Phocida. 



obliquely to the axis of the toothrow. The mandibular series 

 thus closely resembles the teeth of the more delicate females 

 of Phoca richardii and P. vitulina. 



In this connection the Plover Bay skull is to me of special 

 interest. It is a large and apparently very old male, which in 

 1880 (Hist. N. Am. Pinnipeds, pp. 572 and 579) I referred 

 provisionally to Phoca vitulina, with the following comment: 

 "My attention has been forcibly drawn to this matter [sexual 

 variation] by a skull (No. 6783, Nat. Mus.) from Plover Bay 

 (Siberian Coast of Behring's Straits), which I at first referred 

 unhesitatingly to Phoca vitulina, when examined in connec- 

 tion with a large series from both the Atlantic and Pacific 

 coasts of America, but later, when compared again with a 

 smaller series, I thought it might represent a form closely 

 allied to, but still specifically distinct from, P. vitulina 

 probably the so-called Phoca ' nummularis .' On collating it 

 again with the full series first examined it seemed undoubtedly 

 to be only an old female of P. vitulina. Aside from the 

 slighter and more delicate structure of the skull, the most 

 notable differences are the smaller, normally implanted, and 

 even slightly spaced molar teeth, the narrowness of the facial 

 portion of the skull, and the corresponding narrowness of the 

 lower jaw and absence of the abrupt outward curvature of 

 the rami at the last molar . . ." (/. c., p. 572). This ex- 

 tract is here quoted as showing the chief points of difference 

 between Phoca vitulina and Phoca ochotensis and its sub- 

 species macrodens. This Plover Bay skull I now regard as an 

 old male P. ochotensis macrodens, instead of a female Phoca 

 4 vitulina ' with exceptionally weak dentition and delicately 

 developed skull. In other words, as regards dentition, there 

 is a resemblance in the size and position of the teeth between 

 males of P. ochotensis and females of P. vitulina. 



8. Phoca stejnegeri, sp. nov. 



BERING ISLAND SEAL. 



Figs. 7-10. 



Phoca largha STEJNEGER, Bull. U. S. FishComm. XVI, 1896, 21 (Com- 

 mander Islands). No description. Not Phoca largha Pallas, sp. indet. 



