TECHNICAL HISTORY SPECIES. 423 



of the Phoca, Vitulus marinus, or Sea-Calf, shewed at Charing- 

 Cross, in February, 1742->43",* containing a plate illustrative of 

 the animal. Figure one, it is said by the author, " Bepresents 

 the Phoca lying upon the right side, that the belly and Parts 

 of Generation may be the better observed." He says the animal 

 was very young, " though Seven Feet and half in Length, having 

 scarce any Teeth, and having Four Holes regularly placed about 

 the naval, as appears by the Figure, which in time become Pa- 

 pillce." This account, as will be noticed later, has figured very 

 prominently in relation to the history of the Bearded Seal (Phoca 

 bdrbata, auct.), especially in reference to its right to a place in 

 the British Fauna. 



In 1753 the same author, in a paper entitled " A. Dissertation 

 upon the Class of the Phocae Marinae, " t formally described 

 five " species" under the term Phoca, of which three were cari- 

 catured in figures. In the way of criticism of his paper, it is 

 perhaps enough to say that one of his species is a compound of 

 the Manatee and the Sea-Elephant (i.e., "Manati, De Laet" 

 and "Sea-lion, Lord Anson"). Another, based on Grew's 

 "Long-necked Seal", from an unknown locality, is evidently 

 some kind of Otary. His " Common Seal", his " Tortoise-headed 

 Seal", and his "Long-bodied Seal", are evidently Phocids, but 

 the short diagnoses give no distinctive characters, and the spe- 

 cies, as here described, are consequently unrecognizable. The 

 last named, which was originally described, as already noticed, in 

 1744, has been usually referred, but generally with doubt, to the 

 Phoca barbata, mainly on account of its large size, but his figure 

 gives other characters that render it pretty certain that this is a 

 correct allocation. His ' i Common Seal " has been presumed to be 

 the Phoca vitulina. Two of these were introduced into techni- 

 cal nomenclature by Kerr in 1792, on which Shaw imposed addi- 

 tional names in 1800. 



In 1758 Linne, in the tenth edition of the " Systema Naturae", 

 gave four species under the genus Phoca, namely ; 1, Phoca 

 ursina (based exclusively on S teller's "Ursus marinus"}; 2, 

 Phoca leonina (based exclusively on Anson's "Sea Lion "); 3, 

 Phoca rosmarus (the Walrus) ; and 4, Plioca vitulina, with its hab- 

 itat defined as "Mari Europaeo". In the twelfth edition of the 

 same work (176G) the third species above named was removed to 

 the 1 genus Tricliechus, and Ellis's figure of the "Seal with a 



* Phil. Trans., vol. xlii, for the years 1742 and 1743 (1744), p. 383, pi. i. 

 tlbid., vol. xlvii, 1751-1752 (1753), pp. 109-122, pi. vi. 



