GENUS HISTKIOPHOCA. 675 



tives of Ainoor Land aud Saghalieu Island for the same pur- 

 poses as Mr. Kumlien notes in respect to the Esquimaux of 

 Cumberland Sound. Owing to its scarcity it has no great com- 

 mercial importance, though sometimes taken by the sealers of 

 the Spitsbergen sealing-grounds. Rink states that the whole 

 annual catch of this species in Greenland hardly amounts to 

 1,000. 



GENUS HISTRIOPHOCA, Gill. 



Histrlophoca, GILL, Am. Nat., vii, 1873, 179. (Type, " Phoca fastiata, Shaw, 

 or P. equestris, Pallas.") 



Cranial characters unknown. Incisors, |^|; C., ^; M., |f|. 

 Incisors conical, cylindrical, directed slightly backward. Mo- 

 lars, except the first, 2-rooted, placed somewhat apart, with 

 simple crowns directed backward. Sexual differences in color 

 strongly marked. Males, dark brown, varied with narrow 

 bands of white. Females, light brown, with the white bauds 

 obsolete. 



According to von Schrenck, on whose authority the above 

 characters are given, the molar teeth, except thefirst, are 2-rooted, 

 as in Phoca and Erignathus, but the crowns resemble those of 

 the corresponding teeth in Halicliwrus, being simple aud slightly 

 curved backward. The middle molars (third and fourth) and 

 sometimes the others, both above aud below, show a minute 

 point or accessory cusp at the base of the principal one, both 

 in front of it and behind it, but this is a variable feature, not 

 only as respects the number of teeth thus furnished, but iu 

 some specimens these minute accessory cusps may be wholly 

 lacking. As the characters of the skull have not been as yet 

 either figured or described, further comparison with other gen- 

 eric types becomes impracticable. 



The genus Histrioplioca was proposed for the present species 

 by Dr. Gill in 1873, but has not been fully characterized. Dr. 

 Gill's diagnosis is as follows: " The structural (and especially 

 dental) characters of this species, according to Von Schrenck, 

 indicate a generic distinction from all the familiar forms of the 

 subfamily Phociiue. The molars, except the first, are two-rooted, 

 as in the typical Phocin(e, but in external form are simply conic, 

 or have rudimentary cusps, thus resembling Halichoerus. This 

 genus may be called Histriophoca." Taking into account the 

 peculiar pattern of coloration, ar.d the couic, double-rooted 



