1861.] MR. A. NEWTON ON THE ZOOLOGY OF SPITSBERGEN. 497 
not differ from what it ordinarily is in other countries, and the winter 
coat seems to be invariably white*. 
We noticed two species of Phocide in the waters of Ice Fjord. 
I am indebted to Mr. Malmgren for the information that these are 
the Callocephalus feetidus and Phoca barbata of Dr. Gray’s ‘ Cata- 
logue of Mammalia in the British Museum.’ The former is called 
by the Norwegians who frequent the coast of Spitsbergen ‘ Steen- 
Kobbe,”’ or Stone-Seal, probably because it is usually seen near rocks, 
or at any rate at no great distance from land ; the latter is known as 
“* Stor Kobbe,” Great Seal, or less frequently “‘ Blaa Kobbe,’’ Blue 
Seal. How this last name came to be applied to it I do not know. 
As far as I can judge, it is very inappropriate. When dry, its fur is 
of a dirty yellowish white; and a beast of this species lying on a 
floe has exactly the appearance of a lump of discoloured ice, so that 
the hunter often takes one for the other. In the water it seems to 
be much of the same colour as most Seals—a dark iron-grey above, 
lighter beneath. It is a very powerful animal: I saw one that had 
received three Enfield-bullets through the nape of its neck, and had 
been bleeding profusely for about half an hour; yet it nearly suc- 
ceeded in capsizing a large whale-boat with five men in her, owing 
to the clumsiness of the harpooner. We constantly saw this species 
at a considerable distance from land—ten to twenty miles, off the west 
coast of Spitsbergen, mostly between Bell Sound and Ice Fjord; and 
a young male of the previous year was shot from the deck of the 
yacht, and afterwards harpooned, on the 29th July, about fifteen 
miles from South Cape. 
We saw no other mammals in Ice Fjord. Our pilot pointed out 
to me one day a place where, many years ago, a jegt’s crew, of 
which he himself was one, killed nine Polar Bears; but no such 
good fortune attended us. ‘This same man informed me that he 
knew of the occurrence in Spitsbergen of a ‘‘ Hermelin,” a species 
which has not hitherto been recorded from that country, though it 
is probable that the “creature, somewhat larger than a weasel, with 
short ears, long tail, and skin spotted white and black,” stated to 
have been seen on Low Island by Dr. Irving in Lord Mulgrave’s 
Voyaget, was nothing else but Mustela erminea. 
I must here mention the pleasure it was to me, and, I am sure, to all 
* T have never seen it remarked, though it is unquestionably the case, that 
nearly all the Icelandic examples of Canis lagopus are “ Blue” Foxes; that is to 
say, their winter coat is of nearly the same colour as their summer coat. This 
fact, I think, must be taken in connexion with the comparatively mild climate 
which Iceland enjoys in winter, and, if so, is analogous to the circumstance of the 
Alpine Hare (Lepus timidus, Linn., non auct.) always becoming white in winter 
in Scandinavia, generally so in Scotland, and but seldom in Ireland. The Com- 
mon Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) is another case in point; and all three may be 
considered illustrative of the vexed questions of the specific distinctions between 
the Great Northern Falcons (Falco gyrfalco, F. candicans, and F. islandicus), and 
of the specific identity of the Red and Willow Grouse (Lagopus scoticus and L, 
albus). 
it Me Voyage towards the North Pole undertaken by His Majesty’s command, 
1773.’ By Constantine John Phipps. London: 1774, page 58. 
Proc. Zoou. Soc.—1864, No. XXXII. 
