70 NATURAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



"The Bladder-nose appears to be very rare in the upper Cumberland waters. One specimen 

 was procured at Annanactook in autumn, the only one I saw. The Eskimo bad no name for it, and 

 said they had not seen it before. I afterward learned that they are occasionally taken about the 

 Kikkerton Islands in spring and autumn. I found their remains in the old kitchenmiddens at 

 Kingwah. A good many individuals were noticed among the pack-ice in Davis's Straits in July/" 



On the European coast this species is said to be of not very common occurrence on the northern 

 coast of Norway, but more to the southward only stragglers appear to have been met with. 2 In 

 March and April, according to Malmgren, they are seen about Jan Mayen, and they are said to 

 occur on the coast of Finmark, and at the mouth of the White Sea. Von Baer 3 and Schultz also 

 state that it is rarely found not only in the White Sea, but along the Timanschen and Mourman 

 coasts. Von Heuglin says it appears to be found in the Spitsbergen waters only on the western 

 coast of these islands, 4 and states that it is not known to occur at Nova Zembla. He gives 

 its principal range as lying more to the westward, around Iceland and Greenland. 



It thus appears that the range of the Crested Seal is restricted mainly to the arctic waters of 

 the North Atlantic, from Spitzbergen westward to Greenland and Baffin's Bay, and thence south- 

 ward to Newfoundland. Stragglers have been captured, however, far to the southward of these 

 limits, on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus Gray observes : 



" A young specimen has been taken in the river Orwell; at the mouth of the Thames ; and at 

 the Island of Oleron, west coast of France, but I greatly doubt if it had not escaped from some ship 

 coming from North America; there is no doubt of the determination of the species. The one caught 

 on the River Orwell, 29th June, 1847, is in the Museum of Ipswich, and was described by Mr. W. 

 B. Clarke, on the 14th August, 1847, in 4to, with a figure of the Seal and skull. The one taken on 

 the Isle d'Olerou is in the Paris Museum, and is figured, with the skull, in Gervais, Zool. et Fallout. 

 Franc., t. 42, and is called Phoca Isidorei, by Lesson, in the Rev. Zool., 1843, 256. The young is 

 very like that of Pagophilus grcenlandicus, but is immediately known from it by being hairy between 

 the nostrils, and by the grinders being only plated and not lobed on the surface." 5 



Its capture has occurred a few times on the coast of the United States, as far from its usual 

 range even as on the European coast. A large Seal is occasionally seen on the coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, which has been supposed to be the Crested Seal, but just what this large Seal is remains 

 still to be determined. 6 DeKay, in 1824, recorded 7 the capture of a male example of this species 



'Bulletin of the United States National Museum, No. 15, 187!, p. 64. 



"Says Biasing, writing in 1857, "An den sildlichen KUstenlaudern der Nordsee hat man sie bis jetzt noch uicht 

 gesehen." Natnrgesch. der Siingeth. Deutschlauds, p. 260. 



'Bull. Acad. Imp. dos Sci. de St. P<Stersb., iii, 1838, p. 350. 



'Malmgren, writing some years earlier, says that in recent times it has not been observed with certainty at Spitz- 

 bergen. though reported as occurring tbere by Martens and Scoresby. Possibly, he says, during its summer wanderings 

 it may extend to the latitude of Spitzbergen. During Torell's first jonrnoy to Spitzbergen a young individual was 

 killed in the vicinity of Bear Island. 1 He says it is only exceptionally taken by the seal-hunters about Jan Mayen, 

 only a comparatively small number being captured. Arch. i'Ur Naturgesch., 1864, p. 72. 



6 GAY, J. E., in Zoologist, 2d ser., vol. vii, 1872, p. 3338. 



In my "Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetts," I refer to this large Seal a follows, supposing it to be the 

 Hooded Seal : " From accounts I have received from residents along the coast of a Seal of very large size, observed by 

 them, and occasionally captured, I am led to think this species is not of iiufrequent occurrence on the Massachusetts 

 coast. Mr. C. W. Bennett informs me of one taken sume years since in the Providence River, a few miles below Provi- 

 dence, which he Haw shortly after. From his very particular account of it I cannot doubt that it was of this species. 

 Mr C. J. Maynard also informs me that a number of specimens hav. been taken at Ipswich within the past few years, 

 that have weighed from seven huudred to nine hundred pounds. It seems to be most frequent in winter, when it appar- 

 ently migrates f:-::i III" north." Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., vol. i, Xo. 8, 1869, pp. 193, 194. This identification was 

 made almost solely on the ground of size, taken in connection with the fact that the specieji had been taken in Long 

 Island Sound near New York Ciry. The question, however, may fairly be raised whether the large Seals more or less 

 frequently seen on the coast of New England are not, really the Gray Seal (Halichairns yrj/pun). 



'Ann. New York I/ycenm Nat. 8ci., vol. i, 1824, p. 94. 



