414 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [Juue 25, 



No separate returns of the catch of this have been kept ; but it is 

 estimated that of Pagomys fcetidus and Callocephalus vitulinus, the 

 yearly capture in Danish Greenland must amount to 70,000* or 

 more. The flesh is looked upon in Greenland as the most palatable 

 of all "seal-beef." 



(2) Pagomys fcetidus (Midi.), Gray. 



Phocafoetida, Miill. 



Phoca hispida, O. Fab. Nat. Selskab. Skrifter, vol. i. 2. p. 74. 



Phoca bothnica, Gm. 



Phoca fasciata, Shaw. 



Phoca anneUata, Nilss. 



Phoca discolor. Gray. 



Phoca frederici, Less. 



Popular names. — Ringlad Skdl (Nilsson) ; Morunge (CEdmann, 

 Vet. Akad. Handl. 1784, p. 84); Hringanor (Mohr, Isl. Natur- 

 historiske, p. 5); Kuma (Tungunsen near Baikal); iNerpa (Russ.); 

 (Neitsiak (young) and Neitsik (old, pronounced Nesik, Green- 

 landers and Danes iu Greenland) ; Floe-rat or Flaar-ratf (of 

 Northern English and Scotch sealers). It has been so often con- 

 founded with other Seals that, even on the coasts where it is not 

 uncommon, it has not received many popular names ; however, 

 in different parts of the Scandinavian seaboard it is variously called 

 Inskarsskal or Sk'drfvivg, and Svart noUed-sul, or simply the Nollede. 

 This is, in all probabihty, the Seal known in the Hebrides as the 

 bodach or old man. 



It is doubtful if this is the Phoca equestris of Pallas ; but I cannot 

 think that there is any serious room for doubt that it is identical 

 with Dekay's Phoca concolor. 1 do not think that any one now 

 entertains any doubt about its being identical with the Phoca fmtida 

 of Fabricius (Fauna Groenl. p. 13. no. 8) or the Phoca hispida 

 described by the same author in the ' Naturhistoriske Selskabets 

 Skrifter,' /. c, though Nilsson seemed in 1847 to have been doubtful 

 (Skand. Fauna, i. p. 283). 



Descriptive remarks ^c. — This is the smallest of the Greenland 

 Seals ; it is chiefly looked upon and taken as a curiosity by the 

 whalers, who consider it of very little commercial importance, and 

 call it the " Floe-rat," as it is always either found ou floes or quietly 

 swimming about in the smooth floe-waters. 



Young. — The young is white, of the yellowish tint of the Polar 

 Bear. The hair is curly. 



Habit ^c. — They delight to live in retired bays in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the ice of the coasts, and seldom frequent the open sea. 

 In the Greenland and Spitzbergen seas they chiefly live upon the 

 floes in retired situations at a considerable distance from the margin 

 of the ice. Dr. Wallace observed them for a considerable time in 



* Rink, /. c. 



t 1 have lieaul the English sailors call them Dorrities; but this term is also 

 used for the Bluehacks (P. graenlandicus). 



