PHOCA VITULINA HARBOR SEAL. 559 



been also adopted by several English and German zoologists. 

 It has been given especial prominence by Dr. Gray and those 

 who have followed his nomenclature. Latterly, however, Gray 

 restricted it to the single species Phoca vitulina. Cnvier and 

 his followers placed in it not only Phoca vitulina, P. fcetida, and 

 P. grcenlandica, but also P. barbata. 



As early as 1844, Gray removed Phoca barbata from the genus 

 Callocephalus as the type and sole species of his restricted genus 

 Phoca. At the same time Pagophilus, with Phoca grcerilandica 

 as type, was proposed as a subgenus of Cattocephalus, but was 

 later raised by him to full generic rank. In 1844 the same 

 author introduced the " genera " Halicyon and Pagomys, with 

 u Phoca richardi," Gray (=Phoca vitulina) as type of the former, 

 while Phoca fcetida was chosen as the type of Pagomys. In 18G6 

 he bestowed the generic name HalipMlus upon the species Gill 

 a few months before had called Phoca pealei. This being merely 

 Peale's Halichcerus antarcticus, and the same as Gray's Halicyon 

 richardsi, the latter had now in use at the same time three ge- 

 neric names for the single species Phoca. vitulina, namely, Callo- 

 cephalus, Halicyon, and Haliphilus! 



Pusa, proposed by Scopoli in 1777 as the generic name of a 

 Seal previously figured and described by Miiller, is perhaps not 

 without objections, although Scopoli's sole reference being to 

 Miiller, the species intended is fixed beyond question, notwith- 

 standing that his diagnosis is a pure absurdity. Miiller's figure 

 was copied from a plate published twelve years before by Hout- 

 tyu, which latter was a copy of a figure published by Albiuus 

 in 1756. Albinus's better plate and description were evidently 

 based on an adult female Phoca fcetida. The name Pusa was 

 overlooked or ignored till Gill in 1872 revived it as a substitute 

 for Halichcerus.* 



PHOCA (PHOCA) VITULINA, Linne. 

 Harbor Seal. 



Phoca communis, LINNE, Mus. Ad. Fred, i, 1754, 5. 



Phoca vitulina, LINNE, Syst. Nat., 1758, i, 38; ibid., 1766, i, 56; Faun. Suec., 

 1761, 2. MULLER, Zool. Dan. Prod., 1776, 1. SCHREBER, Sauget., iii, 

 [1776?] 333, pi. Ixxxiv (figure from Buffon). ERXLEBEN, Syst. Reg. 

 Anirn., 1777, 583. FABRICIUS, Faun. Grcenl., 1780, 9 ; Skriv. Naturk.- 

 Selsk., ii, 1791, 98. GMELIN, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 63. KERR, Anim. 

 King., 1792, 123. EDMONSTON, View of Zetland, ii, 1809, 292. G. 



* For a detailed history of Pusa, and a full transcript of Scopoli's diag- 

 nosis, see infra under genus Halichcerus. 



