GENERAL NOTES 
235 
Woodford County, Kentucky. Mr. May noticed that something had been run- 
ning under a haystack, and, thinking it might be a mink, he set a trap under the 
stack and caught the mongoose, — an animal entirely strange to him and to other 
people of the vicinity. No record of how the mongoose reached the region can 
be traced. 
This animal, Herpestes griseus, a native of India, is the same species which 
has been introduced into Cuba, Porto Rico, and several other places, for the 
destruction of noxious rodents, but it has become a serious pest on account of 
its destruction of poultry and biMs. The capture of a single animal in the 
United States should not in itself unnecessarily alarm us, but it should stimulate 
us to be doubly on our guard. In spite of laws, ably administered and rigidly 
enforced, against importation or shipment of the mongoose in this country there 
is always a possibility that the animal might become established. Should such 
ever be the case it would spell the doom of all ground-nesting birds throughout 
a great part of the United States. Everybody interested in conservation of 
native wild-life should be able to recognize the mongoose and should report any 
occurrence of the animal in the country at once to the U. S. Biological Survey. 
The animal is really quite unlike any native North American species and is 
easily identified. It is a carnivore about the size of the mink and of similar 
proportions. The tail, however is rather longer than that of the mink, and 
tends to taper toward the tip. The animal is furred rather scantily, particularly 
ventrally, with a coarse, hispid hair. Its general tone of color is yellowish gray, 
distinctly flecked or grizzled with brownish black and whitish. This color effect 
is produced by an underfur of clay color intermixed with the longer guard hairs 
each one of which is banded alternately with fuscous-black and buffy white, the 
fuscous-black bands being the longer. — Hartley H. T. Jackson, U. S. Biological 
Survey, Washington, D. C. 
PRIBILOF FUR SEAL ON THE OREGON COAST 
On February 1, 1921, an immature male Pribilof fur seal {Callorhinus alascanus 
Jordan and Clark) in a badly emaciated condition came ashore on the ocean 
beach about a mile north of the bar at Netarts Bay, Tillamook County, Oregon. 
When first seen by a local resident the seal was high up on the dry sand, above 
normal high tide, and was “quite active.’’ About two hours later, when Mr. 
Clarence Edner of Netarts went to look for it, he found it lying dead in the wet 
sand just above the breakers. Mr. Edner thinks that after the animal was first 
seen it made an attempt to return to the sea but died before reaching the water. 
So far as I am aware, this is the only authentic record in recent years of the 
occurrence of the Pribilof fur seal on the Oregon coast. — Stanley G. Jewett, 
Portland, Oregon. 
ELEPHANT SEALS OFF THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA 
In the May number of the Journal of Mammalogy, page 112, there appeared 
an article by A. W. Anthony recording the appearance of elephant seals off the 
southwest coast of California. Several years ago Capt. Chas. Davis captured 
several young elephant seals on Guadalupe Island and brought them, alive, to 
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JOUBNAIi OF MAMMALOGY, VOL. 2 , NO. 4 
