THE "genus PUSA OF SCOPOLI. 685 



actly wbat lie meant, in spite of his inept diagnosis ; his name 

 Fusa therefore holds, and cannot be snbsequently used by 

 Oken in a different connection."* 



An examination of the case, however, shows that Miiller's 

 l^late is not "recognizable with certainty" as that of any par- 

 ticular species of Seal. Scopoli's diagnosis is sirai)ly an ab- 

 surdity, as the subjoined transcript t sufficiently shows, his 

 reference to Miiller's description and plate affording the only 

 real basis for his genus Pusa. As already stated, the figure 

 cannot be x)OSitively referred to any x>articular species of Seal. 

 The description given by Miiller | records few characters that 

 are not applicable to any species of Earless Seal. Those w4iich 

 are not thus apx^licable appear to relate to Phoca grypus, Fa- 

 bricius, and I so at first interpreted the description, but later I 

 found it necessary to go further back in the history of the sub- 

 ject. The plates of Miiller's work, so far as the mammals are 

 concerned, pro\e on collation to be very close copies of those 

 given by Houttuyn (with the exception of three that apj)ear to 

 be here for the first time published) twelve years earlier, if, in- 

 deed, some of them were not actually printed from the same 

 etchings. Miiller says (1. c, j). 201), " Der Professor Albinusin 

 Leiden zergliederte den 24. Februar, 1748. in Gegenwart des 

 Herrn Houttuyns einen Seehund, w^elcher Tab. XI. fig. G. ab- 



* Fur-bearing Auimals, 1877, j). 337. 



t " PVSA. Scoj). Pedes antici unguiculati, postici connati iu piniiam sex- 

 lobam, ad quorum origiiiem superne exit pinna lanceolata, liorizontalis. 

 Dentes incisores quatuor, canini supra sex, infra quatuor. Auriculje uul- 

 IjB. Pili breves. 



" Descriptionem & iconem dedit CI. Mullervs S. N. Tovi. I. Tab. XI. fg. 

 6." Inirodvctio ad Historiam Natvralem sistens Genera Lajndnn, Plantarvm, ct 

 AnimaUvm hacfenvs detecta," etc., 1777, p. 490, genus 433. For this tran- 

 script I am indebted to Dr. Edward J. Nolan, secretary of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, the library of this Academy containing 

 the only copy of the work known to me as existing in this country. (Since 

 the above was written a copy of Scopoli's above-named work has been re- 

 ceived at the library of Harvard College.) 



tDes Ritters Carl vou Liune Koniglich Schwedischen Leibarztes, &c., 

 &c., vollstiindiges Natursysteui nach der zwiilften lateinischen Ausgabe 

 uud nach Auleitung des holliindischen Houttuynischen Werks mit einer 

 ausfiihrlicheu Erklaruug ausgefertiget von Philipp Ludwig Statins Miiller 

 Prof, der Naturgeschichte zu Erlang und Mitglied der Rom. Kais. Akademie 

 der Naturforscher, &c. Erster Theil. Von den siiugenden Thieren. Mit 32 

 Kupfern. Niirnburg, bey Gabriel Nicolaus Raspe, 1773. Eiue andero Art 

 eines Seehundes, pp. 201, 202, pi. xi, fig. 6. 



