18G8.] MR. R. BROWN ON THE MAMMALS OF GREENLAND. 333 



Cope* has attempted to establish several new (sic) species of Beluga 

 from Hayes's collection ; but none of them (in my opinion) have the 

 slightest claims to specific distinction t, the supposed differences being 

 merely such as age or the ordinary variations between one individual 

 and another would produce. By such well-meaning efforts, misdi- 

 rected, science loses rather than gains. 



Other contributions to Arctic Mammalogy I shall have occasion to 

 notice as 1 proceed. 



2. Systematic Distribution of the Greenland Mammalian Fau7ia. 



As might be expected, the character of the Greenland Mammalian 

 fauna partakes of a sarcophagous type, the phytophagous species pro- 

 per being only three, and the marine species far exceeding in number 

 the terrestrial species. In the nomenclature of the Mammalia, 

 though only a secondary matter, in a paper of this nature, so long as 

 they are correctly named, I have followed some standard author, 

 without inquiring too strictly into the soundness or priority of the 

 specific names applied, or the value of the tribal or generic divisions 

 under which these authors have classed them. 



This subject I may return to more critically at another time ; but 

 in a paper of this nature, I have allowed convenience of reference to 

 overrule other considerations, considering that the eminence of the zoo- 

 logists followed will be a sufficient safeguard that no great error has 

 been committed. Accordingly the nomenclature of Baird's ' Gene- 

 ral Report on the Mammalia of North America ' is chiefly follov^'ed, 

 as far as relates to the Greenland terrestrial species, and Dr. Gray's 

 British-Museum Catalogue (1866) for the marine species, with only 

 a few trifling exceptions, having a view to certain points of the syno- 

 nymy of Fabricius's species of Cetacea, to be afterwards discussed. I 

 have, however, ventured to differ with Dr. Gray as to the relative 

 rank of the group of Seals, believing, with IlligerJ, that they are 

 entitled to ordinal rank, and have accordingly designated them 

 Pinnipedia (Illig.) — forming Gray's tribes Phocina, Trichechina, and 

 Cystophorina, for the sake of uniformity, into families under the 

 titles of PhocidcE, Trichechid<B, and Cystophorid<B, comprising the 

 same species as the former tribes, without, however, committing 

 myself to an opinion regarding the advisability of so many generic 

 and other subdivisions of so natural a group, or of the good taste 

 displayed by M. Frederic Cuvier in the formation of some of his 

 genera. Thus, with Professor Nilsson§, I cannot see why, in the 

 formation of the genus Calloce'phale\\ (Callocephahis), Linne's Phoca 

 vitulina should have been chosen as the type of the genus, while 



* Proceedings of the Pliiladelphia Academy of Sciences. 



+ Prof. Reinhardt, who, as Inspector of the Zoological Museum of Copen- 

 hagen, has every means of arriving at a determination from an examination of 

 a large number of skulls, virrites to ine that he has arrived at the same opinion. 



I Prodomus, p. 138 (1811). 



§ Skand. Faun. i. p. 275. 



|| F. Cuvier, Memoires du Museum, xi. p. 182. 



