198 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



commonly smaller and better defined on the lower surface; they 

 may be lighter or darker than the ground color. 



Seals appear to grow all their lives, but slowly after middle 

 age. The length is three to five feet, rarely six. The females 

 are a little smaller than the males, and the molariform teeth are 

 somewhat smaller and less crowded. 



Type locality, Vancouver Island, British Columbia. 



Pacific Harbor Seals are common along the Pacific coast 

 and islands of North America, from British America south prob- 

 ably to northern California. 



Phoca richardii geronimensis Allen. 



SAN GERONIMO HARBOR SEAL. 



Similar to richardii; averaging larger; teeth heavier. 



Type ■ Oddity, San Geronimo Island, Lower C'alifornia. 



The San Geronimo Harbor Seals are common in many places 

 along the California coast, particularly in the bays. They are 

 monogamous. The young are born in May, June and July ; one 

 pup is the rule. They are not migratory and are not as gregari- 

 ous as most sealis are, being seldom found in large co'mpanies. 

 They are comparatively silent, not making a loud roaring or bark- 

 ing as sea lions do. 



Harbor Seals eat large quantities of fish, som'etimes doing 

 serious injury to- inshore fisheries. In such places their killing 

 should perhaps be encoriraged, since the Harbor Seal is of but lit- 

 tle use to civilized peoples, though to the northern Indians and In- 

 nuits they are an important source of food supply. The skin is 

 of little value. The oil is not made use of here, though in some 

 regions various small species are hunted for their oil. Scammon 

 considers it the purest of all seal oils. Elliott says that the best 

 seal flesh is that oi the Harbor Seal. 



These Seals are fond of basking in the sun, especially at low 

 tide, when numbers may be seen lying on their favorite sand bars 

 in the smaller bays that are not disturbed by shipping. 



Progress on land, when hurried, is by pulling themselves 



