214 FAMILY OTARIHXffi. 



MYTHICAL AND UNDETERMINABLE SPECIES. 



In the preceding pages reference has been made to various 

 species described too imperfectly to admit of recognition. 

 Some of these I have doubtfully allocated as above ; others I 

 have made no attempt to determine. Among these are the 

 following : 



1. Phoca pusilla-, SCHREBER, Sauget, iii, [1776?], 314, based, 

 as already stated (see above, p. 194), on Buffon's " Petit Phoque," 

 a young Fur Seal from an unknown locality. Buffou speaks of 

 it as reported to have been brought from the Indies and the 

 Levant (Hist. Nat., xiii, 1765, 341), and later (ib.,345) calls it "le 

 petit phoque noir des Indes & du Levant." 



2. Phoca longicollis, SHAW, General Zool., i, 1800, 256, based 

 on the Long-necked Seal of Grew (Museum, 1686, 95) and 

 Parsons (Phil. Trans., xlvii, 1751-52, pi. vi). Though said by 

 Shaw to be "earless," Gray* contributes the following his- 

 tory: "There formerly existed in the Museum of the Royal 

 Society an Eared Seal without any habitat ; it is called the 

 Long-necked Seal in Grew's 'Rarities', p. 95, described and 

 figured under that name by Parsons in the Phil. Trans, xlvii, t. 

 6, and noticed in Pennant's ' Quadrupeds', ii, p. 274. Dr. Shaw, 

 in his ' Zoology', i, p. 256, translated the name into Phoca lon- 

 gicollis, and copied Parsous's figures. The name and the form 

 of the front feet are enough to show that it is an Eared Seal ; 

 for the neck of these animals is always long compared with the 

 neck of the Earless Seals or Phocidcc. Fischer, in his ' Synopsis ', 

 p. 240, overlooking this character and the description of the 

 front feet, considers it as the same as the Sea-Leopard of Wed- 

 dell (Phoca WeddcUii) from the Antarctic Ocean, an Earless 

 Seal. Though the habitat is not given, there can be no doubt, 

 when we consider the geographical distribution of the Eared 

 Seal, that it must have been received either from the southern 

 part of South America or from the Cape of Good Hope, as the 

 animals of the N< >rth Pacific and of Australia were not known 

 or brought to England in 1686. As no account of the color of 

 the fur is given, it is impossible to determine to which species 

 inhabiting these countries it should be referred. It is most 

 probably the Sea Lion (Otaria leonina), as that is the animal 

 which is most generally distributed and commonly brought to 

 England. The sailors sometimes call it the 'Long-necked 



*Aiin. and Mag. Nat, Hist,, 4tli ser., i, 1868, pp. 217, 218. 



