GENERAL HISTORY. 679 



General, History The first account of the present species 

 was published by Pennant, under the name "Rubbon Seal," in 

 the first quarto edition of his "History of Quadrupeds," in 1781 

 (vol. ii, p. 523). His short description, based wholly on infor- 

 mation and a drawing- furnished by Dr. Pallas, is as follows : 

 " Seal with very short fine glossy bristly hair, of an uniform 

 color, almost black ; marked along the sides, and towards the 

 head and tail, with a stripe of a pale yellow color, exactly 

 resembling a rubbon laid on it by art ; words cannot sufficiently 

 convey the idea, the form is therefore engraven on the title of 

 Division III, Pinnated Quadrupeds, from a drawing communi- 

 cated to me by Doctor Pallas, who received it from one of the 

 remotest Kuril islands. 



"Its size is unknown, for Doctor Pallas received only the 

 middle part, which had been cut out of a large skin, so that no 

 description can be given of head, feet, or tail ; a shews the 

 part supposed to be next to the head ; b that to the tail."* 



In Pennant's Arctic Zoology (vol. i, 1793, p. 193) there is a 

 shorter but in some respects a more detailed and better account, 

 which I also transcribe. " Rubbon Seal. With very short bristly 

 hair, of an uniform glossy color, almost black : the whole back 

 and sides comprehended within a narrow regular stripe of pale 

 yellow. 



"It is to Dr. Pallas I owe the knowledge of this species. He 

 received only part of the skin, which seemed to have been the 

 back and sides. The length was four feet, the breadth two feet 

 three; so it must have belonged to a large species. It was 

 taken off the Kuril islands." 



The markings as represented in Pennant's figure correspond 

 well with those of the animal figured bj^ von Schrenck (pres- 

 ently to be noticed), except that the posterior transverse por- 

 tion of the band is relatively narrower than in von Schrenck's 

 specimen. 



In 1783 Pennant's Rubbon Seal was named Phoca fasciata by 

 Zimmermann.t Shaw, without referring to Zimmermann, and 

 i:>robably without knowing that he had named the species, 

 bestowed upon it the same name seventeen years later, | and 

 to him the name has been almost nniversally attributed. The 

 accounts of both these authors were based entirely upon the 

 description given by Pennant, as above quoted, and no further 



* Here qnotecl from the third ed. of Hist. Quad., vol. ii, 1793, p. 277. 

 t Geograph. Geschict., iii, 277. 

 tGen. Zool., vol. i, 1800, p. 257. 



