GENERAL HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. 575 



GENERAL HISTORY AND SYNONYMY. The common Seal is 

 mentioned in the earliest works on natural history, having been 

 described and rudely figured by various writers as early as the 

 middle of the sixteenth century, as well as during the seven- 

 teenth century. Even down to the time of Linne it was the only 

 species recognized; or, more correctly, all the species known 

 were usually confounded as one species, supposed to be the same 

 as the common Seal of the European coasts. Consequently 

 almost, down to the beginning of the present century the " com- 

 mon Seal" was generally supposed to inhabit nearly all the 

 seas of the globe, Buffon, Pennant, Schreber, and others refer- 

 ring to it as an inhabitant of the Southern Hemisphere. Linne* 

 distinguished only a single species, even in the later editions 

 of his "Systema Naturse." As is well known, the smaller 

 species of Seal are with difficulty distinguishable by external 

 characters, particularly during their younger stages. Few, 

 however, are so variable in color as the present, and none has 

 so wide a geographical range. It is hence not surprising that 

 its varying phases should have been made the basis of numer- 

 ous nominal species. As shown by the above table of syn- 

 onymy, the species was first introduced into systematic liter- 

 ature by Linn^ in 1754, under the name Phoca communis. He 

 later changed its name to Phoca vitulina, which specific desig- 

 nation it has since generally retained. Although the name 

 mtulina was, without doubt, based primarily on the animal 

 commonly designated by that name, it originally covered ref- 

 erences to other species, but its limitation to the species now 

 under consideration has been so long currently accepted that 

 only needless confusion would result from any hair-splitting 

 device by means of which some later and more strictly appli- 

 cable name might be substituted. To Fabricius is due the credit 

 of first clearly discriminating the various species of Seals inhab- 

 iting the Arctic waters, and by him, in his classic memoir on 

 the Seals of Greenland,* the present species was first described 

 in detail, and its early literary history clearly set forth. Pen- 

 nant, Schreber, Erxleben, and Gmelin, it is true, had already 

 recognized other species, based, however, mainly on Fabricius's 

 earlier work, " Fauna Grrenlandica," and on Miiller's "Prodro- 

 mus ". The latter, so far as the Seals are concerned, rests also on 

 Fabricius's manuscript notes published by Muller. Later, as al- 



* Udforlig Beskivelse over de Gronlandske Siele. Skriv. af Naturhistorie- 

 Selskabet, Iste Bind, Iste Hefte, 1790, pp. 79-157; 2det Hefte, 1791, pp. 

 73-170. 



