174 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 66 



Order PINNIPEDIA (pinnipeds) 



Family PHOCIDAE (earless seals) 



HARBOR SEAL 

 Phoca vitulina concolor De Kay 



Phoca concolor De Kay, Zoology of New York . . . , Vol. 1, pt. 1 

 (Mammalia) , p. 53, 1842. 



Tppe locality. — ^Long Island Sound, near Sands Point, Nassau Ck)unty, N.Y. 



General distril)ution. — Along the Atlantic coast of North America from 

 Ellesmere Island to South Carolina, but is rare in the northern and southern 

 portion of this range. 



Description. — small seal that averages in total length about 4 

 or 5 feet and weighs 75 to 150 pounds. The pelage is coarse and varies 

 from yellowish gray, spotted with dark brown to almost black, spotted 

 with yellowish. The spotted pelage and small size are distinctive char- 

 acters of this species. 



Maryland records. — Harbor seals in Maryland waters are stragglers ; 

 they are not indigenous to the State. Mansueti (1950, pp. 28-29 ; 1955, 

 p. 2) summarizes Maryland records as follows: One specimen taken 

 in a seine in Chesapeake Bay near Elkton in August 1824; one animal 

 feeding around Thomas Pouch Lighthouse, near Annapolis, in March 

 1894 ; one animal killed in Tangier Sound on 8 July 1898 ; one specimen 

 sighted on 14 September 1898 on a beach above reach of heavy waves 

 at Ocean City, Worcester County ; several animals in Choptank Eiver 

 near Tilghman Island in the early part of February 1925 ; one specimen 

 seen in Chesapeake Bay at Flag Pond in 1940; one animal sighted at 

 Ocean City, Worcester County, in May 1955. 



In addition, there is a fragmentary skin and partial skeleton of a 

 harbor seal in the National collections ; the specimen was found on the 

 beach at Assateague Island, 3 miles south of Ocean City, Worcester 

 County, on 12 May 1959. 



HOODED SEAL 

 Cystophora cristata (Erxleben) 



iPhocal cristata Erxleben, Systema regni animalis . . . , 1 : 590, 1777. 

 Type locality. — Southern Greenland or Newfoundland. 



General distribution. — North Atlantic coast from Greenland to Labrador. 

 Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Gulf of St. Lawrence, south as an accidental to 

 Florida. 



Description. — A large seal, with males ranging up to 10 feet in total 

 length and weighing up to 850 pounds. Females are smaller, averaging 

 about 8 feet in length and weighing up to 400 pounds. Coloration slate- 



