TECHNICAL HISTORY SPECIES. 451 



was brought home by Mr. Gosse", which the following year* 

 became the basis of his Phoca tropicalis. 



Gray, in 1850 (Cat. of Seals in Brit. Mus.) recognized eighteen 

 species of Earless Seals, distributed among eleven genera, of which 

 fourteen of the species are doubtless valid. The species t recog- 

 nized are the following : 1. Lobodon carcinophaga ; 2. Stenorhyn- 

 clius leptonyx ; 3. Leptonyx wvddelli; 4. Monachus albiventer / 5. 

 Ommatophoca rossi; G. Calloceplialus vitulinus ; 7. C.hispidus; 

 S. C.fcetida (1 and 8 are the same) ; 9. C. caspicus ; 10. G. dimi- 

 diatus; 11. C. largha (10 and 11 nominal) 5 12. Pagophilus grcen- 

 Jandicus ; 13. Phoca barbata ; 14. Phoca tropicalis; 15. Halichce- 

 rus grypus ; 16. Morunga elephantina ; 17. Cystophora cristata ; 

 18. C. antillarum. The only new names are Callocephalus dimi- 

 diatus (n. sp. ? ex Schlegel MS.), and Phoca tropicalis (n. sp.), and 

 the only innovation in nomenclature is Monachus albiventer (albi- 

 venter ex Bodd.). 



The same year (1850) Drs. Hornschuch and Schilling, \ after 

 an examination of some sixty skulls of Halichcerus, proposed a 

 division of the genus into three species, namely, H. grypus 

 (Fabr. = griseus Miss.), H. macrorhynchus, and H.pachyrhynchm, 

 the last two being added as new species. Subsequent writers, 

 however, have not considered them as entitled to specific recog- 

 nition. 



In 1854 Gray described a specimen of Monachus albiventer 

 from Madeira under the name Heliophoca atlantica, basing on 

 it a new genus as well as new species. 



In 1855 Giebel, in his " Saugethiere" (pp. 129-143), gave a 

 noteworthy account of the animals here under consideration. 

 It is concise and discriminative, and though closely following 

 Wagner, is an admirable exposition of the state of knowledge 

 respecting this group at the date of its publication, nearly a 

 quarter of a century ago. Although dealing to only a small 

 extent with the bibliography of the subject, the principal syno- 

 nyms of the species are given in footnotes, with generally a 

 brief reference to their character. The species recognized, 



* Cat. Seals Brit. Mus., 1850, p. 28. 



t The synonymy lie here gave is substantially the same as that of his later 

 (18(56) "Catalogue of Seals and Whales", for a notice of which see below, p. 

 453 



t " Kurzc Notizcn liber die in der Ostsee vorkommindeii Arten der Gattung 

 Halicltcerus, Nilss. Greifswald, 1850". Abstract in Wiegmann's Archiv fur 

 Naturgesctu, 1851, Bd. 2, p. 22. The original brochure I have not seen. 



$ Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1854, p. 43. 



