PHOCA VITULINA HARBOR SEAL. 559 



been also adopted by several EugUsh. and German zoologists. 

 It has been given especial prominence by Dr. Gray and those 

 who have followed his nomenclature. Latterly, however, Gray 

 restricted it to the single species Phoca vitulina. Cuvier a,nd 

 his followers placed in it not only Phoca vitulina^ P.fcetida, and 

 P. groenlundica, but also P. harbata. 



As early as 1844, Gray removed Phoca harbata from the genus 

 Callocephalus as the type and sole species of his restricted genus 

 Phoca. At the same time Pagophilus, with Phoca (/rcenlandica 

 as type, was proposed as a subgenus of Callocephalus^ but was 

 later raised by him to full generic rank. In 1844 the same 

 author introduced the " genera " Halicyon and Pagomys, with 

 ^^ Phoca richardi,''^ Gray {= Phoca vitulina) as type of the former, 

 while Phoca fcetida was chosen as the type of Pagomys. In 18G6 

 he bestowed the generic name Haliphilus upon the species Gill 

 a few months before had called Phoca pealei. This being merely 

 Peale's Halichoerus autarcticus, and the same as Gray's Salicyoii 

 richardsi, the latter had now in use at the same time three ge- 

 neric names for the single species Phoca vitulina, namely, Callo- 

 cephalus, Halicyon, and Haliphilus! 



Pusa, ijroposed by Scopoli in 1777 as the generic name of a 

 Seal previously figured and described by Mliller, is perhaps not 

 without objections, although Scopoli's sole reference being to 

 Mliller, the species intended is fixed beyond question, notwith- 

 standing that his diagnosis is a pure absurdity. Miiller's figure 

 was copied from a plate published twelve years before by Hout- 

 tyn, which latter was a copy of a figure published by Albinus 

 in 1756. Albinus's better plate and description were evidently 

 based on an adult female Phoca fcetida. The name Pusa was 

 overlooked or ignored till Gill in 1872 revived it as a substitute 

 for Halichoerus.* 



PHOCA (PHOCA) VITULINA, LinnS. 



Harbor SeaL 



Phoca communis, Linne, Mus. Ad. Fred, i, 1754, 5. 



Fhoca vitulina, LiNis^, Syst. Nat., 1758, i, 38; ibid., 1766, i, 56; Faun. Suec, 

 1761, 2. MtJLLER, Zool. Dan. Prod., 1776, 1. Schreber, Sauget., jii, 

 [1776?] 333, pi. Ixxxiv (figure from Buifon). Erxleben, Syst. Reg. 

 Anim., 1777, 583. Fabricius, Faun. Groenl., 1780, 9 ; Skriv. Natuxh.- 

 Selsk., ii, 1791, 98. Gmelin, Syst. Nat., i, 1788, 63. Kerr, Anim. 

 King., 1792, 123. Edmonston, View of Zetland, ii, 1809, 292. G. 



* For a detailed history of Pusa, and a full transcript of Scopoli's diag- 

 nosis, see infra under genus Halichoerus. 



