ZOOLOGICAT. SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



759 



CALIFORNIA ELEPHANT SEALS. 



CALIFORNIA ELEPHANT SEALS AT 

 THE NEW YORK AQUARIUM. 



By Dr. Raymond C. Osburn, Acting Director, 

 New York Aquarium. 



AMONG the various marine mammals now 

 verging toward extinction, one of the least 

 known, both to the scientist and to the 

 public at large, is the California Elephant Seal, 

 (Macrorhinus angustirostris Gill). Although 

 these animals were once distributed in great 

 numbers along the coast of California for nearly 

 1 .000 miles south from San Francisco, they be- 

 came almost extinct about a half century ago. 

 The large amount of oil — in extreme cases as 

 much as 200 gallons — yielded by these seals, as 

 well as the ease with which they could be pur- 

 sued and killed, rendered their pursuit attrac- 

 tive, and a considerable sealing industry was 

 carried on in this region during the first half of 

 the last century. 



By the year 1860, owing to the scarcity of the 

 seals, the business had gradually been given up, 



but it was partially revived again between the 

 years 1880 and 1881. During the winter of 

 1883-1, Dr. Charles H. Townsend investigated 

 the conditions and secured specimens for the 

 Smithsonian Institution. As far as could be 

 learned about 260 elephant seals were taken 

 from 1880 to 1881. Since that time only oc- 

 casional individuals have been recorded and the 

 species has been supposed to be extinct. 



These facts lend the greatest interest to the 

 capture of six young specimens by the expedi- 

 tion from the American Museum of Natural 

 History and the New York Zoological Society, 

 now working off Lower California under the 

 direction of Dr. Townsend. These specimens 

 were crated separately and shipped by express 

 from San Diego. They arrived at the New 

 York Aquarium on March 13, apparently none 

 the worse for their six da3 y s' trip. 



As no information in regard to their feeding 

 habits could be obtained from the scanty scien- 

 tific literature dealing with these animals, they 



