GENERAL HISTORY AND NOMENCLATURE. 663 



who, I am informed, stated it to be the identical specimen de- 

 scribed under the name of i Long-bodied Seal' by Mr. Parsons, 

 in the forty-seventh volume of the Philosophical Transactions. 

 It has been upon his authority only that Ph. barbata has been 

 catalogued as British, and it now proves to be the same species 

 as that lately found on the southern coast of Ireland by Mr. 

 Ball, the Phoca Gryphus of Fabricius, Halichcerus griseus of 

 Hornschuch and Mlssoii. It was by the exhibition of crania 

 of this species by Mr. Ball at the late meeting of the British 

 Association, that Professor Nilsson, who was present, was able 

 to identify it ; and a subsequent examination of the specimen in 

 the British Museum led that gentleman to the conclusion that 

 this also is identical with the former." * Mr. Ball says, " On ex- 

 amining the remains of Donovan's Ph. barbata, now in the British 

 Museum, I recognized in it an ill-put-up specimen of our Hali- 

 chcerus; and I presume the stuffer has endeavored to make the 

 specimen correspond with the description of Ph. barbata by 

 unduly plumping up the snout and shortening the thumbs, 

 which are evidently pushed in by the wires intended to sup- 

 port the paws." t Since these announcements the Long-bodied 

 Seal of Parsons has generally been referred to Halichcerus 

 grypusj or only doubtfully assigned a place among the synonyms 

 of the Bearded Seal. Inasmuch as the Long-bodied Seal of 

 Parsons forms an important element in the ground-work on 

 which the name Phoca barbata reposes, a further inquiry into 

 the question here at issue may be in place. 



First, it may be noted, that the identity of Donovan's speci- 

 men with that described by Parsons rests on hearsay testimony, 

 namely, a report that he said it was the same. J Without cast- 

 ing any implication of doubt upon the correct specific determi- 

 nation of Donovan's specimen, as above detailed, it may be 

 observed further that the characters given by Parsons apply to 

 the Bearded Seal and to no other, and, furthermore, that Par- 

 sons does not state whether or not his specimen was preserved, 

 nor does he in the original account say where it was captured. 

 In his second notice he gives its habitat as the " Coast of Corn- 



* History of British Quadrupeds, etc., 1837, pp. 278, 279. 



t Ibid., p. 281. 



t Ball states elsewhere that Donovan's Phoca barbata "seems to be the 

 individual described by Parsons as the long-bodied seal, and it appears to 

 have been on the authority of this specimen that Phoca barbata has occu- 

 pied a place in the British Fauna." Trans. Roy. Irish Acad., vol. xviii, pt. 

 1, pp. 90, 1)1, in a paper read " 12th December, 1836". 



