1050 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



HAWAIIAN SEAL (Monachus schauinslandi) LAYSAN ISLAND 



A RARE SEAL 



MESSRS. A. L. C. Atkinson and W. A. 

 Bryan of Honolulu have sent to the 

 Director of the Aquarium the follow- 

 ing interesting notes relating to a species of 

 seal which is known only from a chain of 

 low, uninhabited, coral reefs lying some hun- 

 dreds of miles northwest of the Hawaiian 

 Islands. 



This seal which was only made known to 

 science in 1905, belongs to the same genus 

 as the two sub-tropical species of seals in- 

 habiting the West Indies and the Mediter- 

 ranean. It has been named Monachus schau- 

 inslandi. There are no specimens of it in 

 museums except the skull taken to Germany 

 by Dr. Schauinsland, and possibly some speci- 

 mens in the Rothschild collection in England. 

 Anything relating to it is, therefore, of interest 

 to naturalists. 



Mr. Atkinson writes as follows: — "I have 

 had a talk with a bird hunter who lived 

 several years on Laysan Island and who is 

 now in Honolulu. He saw only a few hair 

 seals around Laysan Island and shot about 

 seven of them for oil. They are rather hard 

 to see in the water and one not used to them 

 would scarcely notice their presence. They 

 lie far out on the reefs and look like small 

 logs. He never saw any young ones at 

 Laysan, but was told by Captain Freeth who 

 worked guano there that he had seen two 

 young hair seals. He is of the opinion that 



they never entirely desert the island. He was 

 told by Japanese fishermen that such seals 

 abounded at Pearl and Hermes Reef which 

 lies at the western end of this chain of islands. 

 Captain Walker and family and the crew of his 

 vessel were wrecked on Midway Island of the 

 same chain for fourteen months, but they 

 saw no seals during that time. Seals have 

 been reported from Ocean Island in the same 

 region. 



"The larger photograph was made by Mr. 

 J. J. Williams who visited Laysan in 1893. Mr. 

 Williams reports that similar seals were seen 

 at French Frigate Shoals, and that he heard 

 of an expedition killing sixty or seventy on 

 Laysan. At the former place there were both 

 adults and young. The smaller photograph 

 was brought back from Pearl and Hermes 

 reef by Governor Frear in January, 1913, 

 at which place about thirty-five seals were 

 observed. A baby seal was born the day that 

 Governor Frear was there, and the animals 

 were all so fearless that they could be readily 

 handled." 



Mr. Bryan writes : 



"At different times, but especially in 1859, 

 sealing expeditions were made to the small 

 low islands northwest of the larger Hawaiian 

 Islands. In that year the "Gambia" return- 

 ed to Honolulu with fifteen hundred skins 

 and two hundred and forty barrels of seal oil. 

 This furnishes us with a record as to the 

 former abundance of the seal (Monachus) in 



