Some Notes on the Hawaiian Monk Seal

UP TO 1958 the collections of the British Museum ( N atural History ) possessed nei ther skeletal material nor skin of the Hawaiian or Laysan monk seal, Monachus schauinslalldi Matschie 1905 . Indeed the only remains of this animal in Europe until now have been those brought back by Dr. Schauinsland, amongst which was the skull of the seal later named after him by Matschie (Marschie, 1905) . The stuffed skin of this animal is in the Bremen Mus eum and the type skull is in the Z oological Museum in Berlin , no. 32795 (Wahlert, 1956 ). So it was with great pleasure that we received, in the summer of 1958, through the kindness of Mr. Vernon E. Brock, then director of the Territorial Division of Fish and Game , Honolulu, H awaii, a young male monk seal from Laysan Island that had been shipped complete and frozen to this country. The animal was thawed, inj ected with coloured gelatin in the vascular system, and dissected after fixation, but unfortunately the tissues were too poorly preserved for any accur ate histol ogy.