GENERAL HISTORY AND NOMENCLATURE. 739 



of the Cristata" a copy of that published by DeKay in the 

 " Annals of the New York Lyceum of Natural History ," of the 

 New York specimen, but has to regret that DeKay's descrip- 

 tion was inaccessible to him, and so falls back upon "the ac- 

 curate Fabricius" for the chief part of his account of the spe- 

 cies, adding thereto a few anatomical details from Drs. Ludlow 

 and King, based, like DeKay's figure, on the specimen taken 

 near New York. Of the Plwca mitrata he says: "The desig- 

 nation of Mitred Seal appears to have been first applied by 

 Camper, and a cranium with this label was found in his mu- 

 seum, in 1811, by Baron Cuvier. This specimen was supposed 

 [doubtless correctly] to have been procured in the Northern 

 Ocean. Soon after making this observation Cuvier received 

 from Mr. Milbert, of New York, a young animal of this genus, 

 from which a skeleton was prepared, and which was found per- 

 fectly to correspond with Camper's specimen. The locality of 

 its capture was not indicated. It has probably been from these 

 materials that the plate in the PI. de Diet, des Scien. Nat., of 

 which ours is a copy, has been prepared, though this is not ex- 

 pressly stated. The learned author of the work [F. Cuvier] 

 here referred to has certainly been unfortunate in making this 

 animal identical with the Crested Seal." After quoting from 

 Cuvier's and Blainville's accounts of this specimen he concludes 

 by stating: "The dimensions, the habits, and even the locality 

 of this singular species seems to be nearly unknown," and 

 quotes "as the only gleanings we have detected" a part of 

 Cranz's account of his " Neitsersoak," which he (Cranz) says is 

 also called "Clapmutz," and hence is merely Cranz's account 

 of the Crested Seal! 



All the names, both vernacular and technical, that have been 

 applied to this species relate to the peculiar inflatable hood of 

 the male. Eespectiug the vernacular designations, Mr. Brown 

 gives the following : " Popular names. i Bladdernose' or, shortly 

 ' Bladder ' (of northern sealers, Spitzbergeu sea [also of New- 

 foundland] ) 5 Klappmysta (Swedish); Klakkekal, Kabbutskobbe 

 (Northern Norse) ; Kiknebb (Finnish) ; Avjor, Fatte-Nwrjo, and 

 Oaado (Lapp); Klapmyds (Danish; hence Egede, Greenl., p. 

 46 : the word Klapmyssen, used by him on page 62 of the same 

 work, Engl. trans., and supposed by some commentators to be 

 another name, means only the Klapmyds, according to the 

 Danish orthography): Klapmiltze (German, hence Cranz, 

 Greenl., i, p. 125: I have also occasionally heard the English 



