448 FAMILY PHOCIDiE. 



of the pelage or coloration, either of the young or adult, that 

 might not apply, for instance, to Fhoca vitulina, while the gen- 

 eral drift of the description certainly indicates an Earless Seal. 

 Nilssou, in 1837,* published an important revision of the Pm- 

 nipedia, which, so far as the Phocids are concerned, is one of 

 the most important contributions to the subject that has yet 

 ai)peared, the variations dependent upon age and individual 

 pecuharities being discussed at length, while a number of the 

 nominal species of preceding authors (some of them for the first 

 time) take their proper stations. Phoca caspica is here first es- 

 tablished as a species, the only new species added. Characters 

 strictly specific are sharply contrasted among allied species not 

 previously well understood. Only a limited amount of syn- 

 onymy is presented, but that is well considered, and has stood 

 the test of subsequent researches. Only ten species of the fam- 

 ily PJwcidce, as now restricted, were recognized, as follows : 1. 

 Stenorhynclms leptonyx ; 2. Pelagius monachus ; 3. Phoca vitulina 

 (to which is referred Thienemann's P. littorea) ; 4. Phoca annel- 

 lata { = Phoca fcetida, to which is referred F. Cuvier's Calloceph- 

 alus discolor) ; 5. Phoca caspica (n. sp.) ; 6. Phoca groenlandica (to 

 which are referred Lepechin's P. oceanica and G. Cuvier's P. 

 lagura); 7. Phoca barbata (to which are referred Lepechin's P. 

 leporina and Pallas's P. nautica and P. albigena) ; 8. Halichcerus 

 grypus; 9. Gystophora proboscidea (to which Fischer's Phoca 

 dubia is referred; Phoca ansoni is again shown to be a compound 

 of this species and Otaria leonina [= O.jubata, auct.], and Phoca 

 byroni is declared to have been based on an old skull without 

 the lower jaw of ^^ Otaria jubata^''); 10. Gystophora cristata (to 

 .which are referred Phoca mitrata of "Fischer", P. leucopla of 

 Thienemann, and Gystophora boreaUs of Mlsson, Skand.-Fanna^ 

 ' 1, 1820, 283). No reference is hence made to several valid spe- 

 ! cies, and a multitude of nominal ones, previously described. 



Gray, in 1837, t described some kind of Hair Seal "forty- 

 seven inches" long from the "Cape of Good Hope", under the 

 name Phoca f platythrix. He seemed to be thus in doubt as to 

 whether it was a true Phoca, but it was doubtless an Earless 

 Seal, or he would not have at this date referred it in any way 

 to Phoca. I find no subsequent reference to it, either by Gray 



* "Utkast till en systematisk indeluing af Phocaceerua. <K. Vet. Akad. 

 Handl. Stockholm, 1837, pp. 235-340". Translated by Dr. AV. Peters in 

 Wiegmann's ArcMv fiir Naturgeschichte, 1841, Bd. 1, pp. 401-332. Tbis is 

 tlie version commonly cited, and the one nsed in the present work. 



+ Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. i, 1837, p. 582. 



