GENERAL HISTORY AND NOMENCLATUl^E. 639 



General History and Nomenclature. The Harp Seal, 

 like the Crested Seal, presents characters, at least in the I" ale 

 sex, that readily attract the attention of even the casual dl^ 

 server the one by its "saddle" or "harp-mark" of black on a' 

 light ground, the other by its inflatable hood. Accordingly both 

 were mentioned by various early writers, but notably by Egede, 

 Ellis, and Cranz, and the indications they gave of their existence 

 enter into the technical history of the species, forming as they 

 do the basis of the first systematic names. Erxleben described 

 the species in 1777, under the name Phoca (jroenlandicaj his de- 

 scription being founded mainly on information previously made 

 public by Cranz. Fabricius, however, had already designated 

 the species by this name the previous year, but the only clue 

 he furnished to the species meant consists merely in his citing 

 its Icelandic and Greenlandic names. In 1778 Lepechin de- 

 scribed and figured the species under the name Phoca oceanica, 

 between which and groenlandica there is thus almost a question 

 of priority.* Although Fabricius in 1790 correctly referred Le- 

 pechin's species to P/ioca groenlandica, it has since frequently fig- 

 ured in the works of compilers as a distinct species, although 

 his figures and description t clearly indicate its relationship. 



Boddaert, in 1785, added another synonym by renaming the 

 species semilunaris, while Desmarest, in 1822, described what 

 is believed to have been a young individual of this species 

 under the name Phoca alhicauda. G. Cuvier, in 1825, also de- 

 scribed a young specimen as Phoca lagura, this name having 

 for a time considerable currency as that of a veritable species. 

 Lesson, in 1828, made here his usual contribution of synonyms 

 by deliberately changing names previously given for those that 

 better suited his fancy, at his hands the Phoca groenlandica of 

 authors becoming Phoca millleri, and the two nominal species 

 previously mentioned as based on young specimens becoming 

 respectively Phoca desmaresti and Phoca pilayi. In 1831 the 

 species was again intentionally renamed dqrsata by Pallas, who 

 quotes as synonyms of dorsata both Phoca groenlandica and 



* Lepechin is usually quoted at 1777, but his paper appears not to have 

 been published till the following year, thus giving Erxleben's name one 

 year's xjriority, and Fabricius's two. 



t Lepechin gave the incisive formula as |^, "In maxilla superiori inci- 

 sores IV"; "in maxilla inferiori incisores modo IV." As suggested by Fa- 

 bricius nearly a century ago, in the iirst case "IV" is evidently a lapsus 

 for VI. (See Fabricius, Skrivter af Naturhistorie-Sclskabet, Bd. i, Hf. 1, 

 1790, p. 97, footnote.) 



