1 62 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIX, 



24. Phoca ochotensis Pallas. 

 OKHOTSK SEAL. 



Five specimens (skins and skulls), collected by Mr. Buxton 

 on the Taiganose Peninsula, 20 miles south of the mouth of 

 the Gichiga River. These are therefore topotypes of Pallas 's 

 Phoca ochotensis, his description of which is sufficiently ex- 

 plicit to render its application to the present species satisfac- 

 torily evident, as elsewhere explained (cf. this Bulletin, XVI, 

 1902, pp. 480-482). A skeleton collected by Dr. Laufer at 

 the mouth of the Amoor River is also referred to the present 

 species. 



"Local name at Gichiga, Ola; at Okhotsk, Ay an, Pengina, 

 and Marcova, Largha. This is by far the most abundant 

 species of the hair seals found in the Okhotsk Sea. I saw 

 them at Udskoi Bay, about the Shantar Islands, at Ayan, 

 Okhotsk, Ola, Gichiga, and at Shestacova on Penginski' Gulf. 

 It, together with the other two species occurring at Gichiga, 

 is a resident in the Gichiginski Gulf. As soon as the rivers 

 flowing into, the head of this gulf free themselves from ice, 

 about the first of June, the Larghas ascend them at high tide 

 as far as slack water, some four or five miles above their 

 mouths, and again go out with the tide. They do not become 

 common in the rivers until the first of July, when the salmon 

 begin to run in considerable numbers, and do not reach their 

 maximum of abundance until two or three weeks later, when 

 the salmon have become abundant. At this time hundreds 

 of them come in with the tide, especially when there is one 

 per day and that occurring after midnight. At that time 

 many go far up the river, while hundreds of them remain 

 near its mouth, where they catch fish and ' haul out ' on the 

 low banks and islands at that point, when their snorting and 

 growling can be heard far up the river. It is possible to 

 shoot many of them in the river, but very few can be secured 

 , there, as they sink immediately and the strong current car- 

 ries them out to sea. At high tide off the river's mouth one 

 can see vast numbers of them catching fish. Dozens of them 

 stick their heads out of the water, some with fish in their 



