680 HISTRIOPHOCA FASCIATA RIBBON SEAL. 



iuformation respecting the species appeared till Pallas in 1831* 

 redescribed the species from the original fragment mentioned 

 by Pennant, and renamed it Phoca equestris. In the meantime 

 the species had been uniformly relegated by authors to the list 

 of doubtful or inadequately described species. Pallas cites 

 Pennant's Eubbon Seal as a synonym of his Plioca equestris, and 

 also refers in his description of ic to Pennant's figure, but to 

 neither Zimmermann nor Shaw. He says it is rare in the 

 Ochots Sea, but is reported to be of frequent occurrence around 

 the Kurile Islands. His description f adds little of imijortance 

 to the information given by Pennant, and apparently relates 

 to the same specimen. 



According to von Schrenck, Hrn. Wosnessenski obtained, 

 during his residence in Kamtschatka, the first perfect speci- 

 mens, embracing the old and young of both sexes, thereby es- 

 tablishing beyond doubt the validity of the species; but this 

 valnable material remained undescribed until the appearance 

 of von Schrenck's work on the Mammals of Amoor Land, in 

 1859.| Von Schrenck himself was so fortunate as to also ob- 

 tain skins of this animal during his journey in Amoor Land, 

 and to him we are indebted for the first detailed description of 

 the species, accompanied by excellent colored figures of both 

 sexes. He, however, adopted Pallas's name Phoca equestris in 

 preference to the verj^ appropriate name given half a century 

 before by Zimmermann, and somewhat later also by Shaw, for 

 wholly arbitrary reasons. || 



*Zoogr. Eosso-Asiat., vol. i, 1831, p. 111. 



t His description iu full is as follows : ' ' Magniiudine praecedentes aeqiiasse 

 vel excessisse videbatur [hence about five feet four inches loiig from the 

 nose to the tail, or rather more], i>ellis enini portio e solo dorso exsecta 

 quatuor fere dodrantum latitudinem et sex ad septem dodrantum longitudi- 

 nem habebat. Color totius brunneus, sen fuscus, cum brnnuci tinctura, 

 uniformis. Pili breves, laevigati, rigidi ut in Ph. canina (=:Phoca vituUna). 

 Insula lata alba, ut amiciss. Pennant delineavit, antice angulo versus 

 cervicem coeuns, per latera introrsum arcuata, postice transversa trabe 

 connexa, totum dorsi discum includit. Optanduui, ut haec singularis 

 species perfectius innotescat." 



t Von Schrenck alludes to a very brief and unimportant reference to the 

 species by Siemaschko, in a work published iu the Russian language in 1851. 



$ Reisen uud Forschungen in Amur-Laude, i, 1859, i^p. 182-188, pi. ix. 



II He appears not to have known of Zimmermann's reference to the spe- 

 cies, but speaks of Shaw's name as "eine Bezeichnung, die jedoch gegeu- 

 wiirtig gegen den uhrspriinglichen, vom Entdecker selbst stammenden und 

 nur (lurch das verzogerte Erscheiuen der Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica spiiter 

 bekannt gewordenen Namen Ph. equestris zuriicktreten muss." L. c, p. 18.2. 



