448 FAMILY PHOCID^E. 



of the pelage or coloration, either of the young or adult, that 

 might not apply, for instance, to Phoca mtulina, while the gen- 

 eral drift of the description certainly indicates an Earless Seal. 

 Mlssoii, in 1837,* published an important revision of the Pin- 

 nipedia, which, so far as the Phocids are concerned, is one of 

 the most important contributions to the subject that has yet 

 appeared, the variations dependent upon age and individual 

 peculiarities being discussed at length, while a number of the 

 nominal species of preceding authors (some of them for the first 

 time) take their proper stations. Phoca caspica is here first es- 

 tablished as a species, the only new species added. Characters 

 strictly specific are sharply contrasted among allied species not 

 previously well understood. Only a limited amount of syn- 

 onymy is presented, but that is well considered, and has stood 

 the test of subsequent researches. Only ten species of the fam- 

 ily Phocidce, as now restricted, were recognized, as follows : 1. 

 Stenorhynchus leptonyx; 2. Pelagius monachus ; 3. Phoca vitulina 

 (to which is referred Thienemann's P. littorea) 5 4. Phoca annel- 

 lata ( = Phoca fcetida, to which is referred F. Cuvier's Calloceph- 

 alus discolor) ; 5. Phoca caspica (n. sp.) ; 6. Phoca grcenlandica (to 

 which are referred Lepechin's P. oceanica and G. Cuvier's P. 

 lagura)] 7. Phoca barbata (to which are referred Lepechin's P. 

 leporina and Pallas's P. nautica and P. albigena)-, 8. Halichcerus 

 grypus; 9. Cystophora proboscidea (to which Fischer's Phoca 

 ! dubia is referred ; Phoca ansoni is again shown to be a compound 

 ; of this species and Otaria leonina [= O.-jubata, auct.], and. Phoca 

 \ byroni is declared to have been based on an old skull without 

 the lower jaw of " Otaria jubata ') ; 10. Cystophora cristata (to 

 i which are referred Phoca mitrata of "Fischer", : JP. leucopla of 

 Thienemann, and Cystophora borcalis of Mlsson, Skand.-Fauna, 

 ' 1, 1820, 283). No reference is hence made to several valid spe- 

 ! cies, and a multitude of nominal ones, previously described. 



Gray, in 1837, t described some kind of Hair Seal "forty- 

 seven inches" long from, the "Cape of Good Hope", under the 

 name Phoca f platythrix. He seemed to be thus in doubt as to 

 whether it was a true Phoca, but it was doubtless an Earless 

 Seal, or he would not have at this date referred it in any way 

 to Phoca. I find no subsequent reference to it, either by Gray 



* "Utkast till en systematisk indelning af Phocaceerna. <K. Vet. Akad. 

 Handl. Stockholm, 1837, pp. 235-340". Translated by Dr. W. Peters in 

 Wiegraann's Archiv fur NatiirgescMchte, 1841, Bd. 1, pp. 401-332. This is 

 the version commonly cited, and the one used in the present work. 



tCharlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i, 1837, p. 582. 



