TECHNICAL HISTORY HIGHER GROUPS. 413 



into two primary unnamed groups in accordance with whether 

 the molar teeth were singie-rooted or had several roots, and 

 later into three, based on the same characters coupled with the 

 number of incisors, in his later classification his first division 

 is equivalent to the PJiocinw and Stenorhynchince of recent 

 authors, his second, to the Cystopliorinm of late authors, and 

 his third comprises the Otaries. Nilsson, in 1837, made two- 

 primary divisions of the Pinnipedia, the first comprising the 

 genera Stenorhynchus, Pelagius, and Phocttj and the other the 

 genera HalichceruSj Trichechus, Cystopliora, and Otaria, or the 

 Gray Seal, the Walruses, and the Otaries. Brookes, in 1828, 

 was the first to accord to the Earless Seals the rank of a fam- 

 ily. Gill, in 1866, however, was the first to effectually make 

 clear their true position and relations to the other Pinnipeds, 

 since which date their family rank has been very generally con- 

 ceded, and the term Phocidoe has been restricted to the Earless 

 Seals. Turner, in 1848, presented the same scheme of primary 

 grouping of the Pinnipeds as that adopted by Gill, and pointed 

 out at the same time the leading distinctions of the three 

 groups, but he allowed to them merely the rank of subfamilies, 

 the term Phocidw still covering the whole of the Pinnipeds. 



The early classifications of Pinnipeds having been already pre- 

 sented somewhat in detail (see antea, pp. 9-12), it is unnecessary 

 to repeat them at length in the present connection. It may 

 suffice to state that the classifications of the Phocidce, with the 

 exceptions already named, prior to 1866, generally embraced 

 both Eared Seals and Earless Seals in the same primary divis- 

 ion. This was the case in Gray's schemes of 1821 and 1825, in 

 F. Cuvier's in 1824, in Mlsson's in 1837, in Wagner's in 1846, 

 and in Giebel's in 1855, the two authors last named separating 

 the Walruses as one family, and combining all the rest of the 

 Pinnipeds as another, called by them Phocina, with no subdi- 

 visions higher than genera. Gray, in 1825, divided the PJio- 

 cidw (=Pinnipediaj exclusive of the Walruses and with the addi- 

 tion of Enhydris] into two primary groups and five secondary 

 groups, of which latter the Earless Seals formed four and the 

 Otaries a fifth. In 1837 he replaced the Walruses in Phocidce 

 (but excluded Enliydris], and adopted the classification em- 

 ployed by him till 1866. This includes two primary divisions 

 termed " Sections," and five secondary divisions termed "Sub- 

 families," as follows : Section I. Subfamily 1. Stenorhynckina, 

 with, originally, the genera Leptonyx, Pelagius, and Steno- 

 rhynchus, to which were added later Lobodon and OmmatopJwca. 



