428 FAMILY PHOCID^. 



species, under the name Phoca vitulina. In the characters here 

 given we have certainly indicated the Hooded or Crested Seal 

 ( Cyr,topliora crl'staia). 



The third additional species he gives is called "Cxranmi- 

 Selnr," whicld he says is also known in Iceland, and refers to its 

 being mentioned in the " Speculo Eegali, p. 177," and in "Olaf 

 Tryggesen's Saga, p. 203." He says it is called commonly 

 ^' Gram-Selur," and is counted as large as some kinds of whales, 

 "Gram" signifies in the old poets a king; the Gram-Selur may 

 be t\\ elve or fifteen Icelandic elles long, and is rare in Iceland ; 

 still they sometimes find it in Westland where examples have 

 been killed on the outermost rocks of Breedefiord. They find it 

 also thrown up on the shore dead, but then no further informa- 

 tion 01 description of it can be obtained than is found in Olaf 

 Tryggesen's Saga, namely, that it has long hair on the head, 

 particularly around the mouth, therefore it is perhaps a Sea 

 Lion, or the great species which lives in the American Antilles 

 (see, he says, " Joh. Sam. Hallens Xatur-Geschichte der Thiere, 

 p. 593 und 581"), which is also credible. It thus appears that 

 Olafsen, like the other earlv writers who refer to the "Gram- 

 Selur," had no personal knowledge of it and spoke of it only 

 from report. It may doubtless therefore be safely treated as a 

 myth. 



It will be noticed that two species known to frequent Iceland 

 are not here mentioned, namely, the Harji Seal and the Rough 

 Seal. The latter may have been confounded with the Land Seal, 

 but the former can hardly be thus accounted for, especially as 

 Olafsen on one occasion distinctly refers to its occurrence in 

 <Treenland. Only four species are thus apparently referred to 

 by Olafsen as inhabitants of Iceland. He alludes further to the 

 manner of capturing the different kinds of seals in Iceland and 

 the value and uses of their products, and recounts the fables cur- 

 rent among the Icelanders respecting the Seal-tribe, and the 

 estimation in which the animals are held among them. 



In Erxleben's admirable compilation, entitled " Systema Kegni 

 Animalis," published in 1777, the Earless Seals recognized and 

 briefly diagnosed, are the following : 1. Phoca vitulina^ with three 

 unnamed varieties (of which latter more will be said later) ; 2. 

 Phoca groenlaiidica ; 3. Phoca hispida ; 4. Phoca cristata (the 

 Klapmlitz of Egede and the Xeitsersoak of Cranz = Phoca 

 leo)ii7ia, capite antice cristato, Fabricius, 1780, but not of Linue, 

 1758); 5. Phoca barhata. The Hooded Seal {Cystophora cris- 

 tata) here receiv^es its first tenable specific name. 



