70 NATUEAL HISTOEY 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 had 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.^ 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^ and Schultz also 

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

 <5oasts. Von Heuglin says it appears to be found in the Spitzbergen waters only on the western 

 «oast of these islands,* and states that it is not known to occur at Nova Zembla. He gives 

 its principal rauge 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, ou 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 takta on 

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

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

 very like that of PagopMlus groBnlandicus, 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."^ 



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. '^ DeKay, in 1824, recorded' the cai)ture of a male example of this species 



'Bulletin of the United States Nalioual Mnsenm, No. 15, 187i), p. 64. 



^Says Blasins, writing in 1857, "An den siidliclien Kiistenlandem der Nordaee hat man sie bis jetzt nooh nicht 

 gesehen." — Naturgeecli. der Siiugeth. Deutschlauds, p. 260. 



sBuU. Acad. Imp. des Soi. de St. PcStersb., 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 there by Martens and Scoresby. Possibly, he says, during its summer wanderings 

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

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

 only a comparatively small number being captured. — Arch, fiir Naturgesch., 1864, p. 72. 



^Gkay, J. E., in Zoologist, 2d ser., vol. vii, 1872, p. 3338. 



«In my " Catalogue of the Mammals of Massachusetis," I refer to this large Seal as 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 uufrequent occurrence on the Massachusetts 

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

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

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

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

 ently mig7-atcs fvuni Vm- north." — Bull. Mns. Comp. Zoiil., vol. i, Xo. 8, 1869, pp. 193, 194. This identification was 

 made almost solely on the ground of size, taken iu connection with the fact that the species bad been taken in Long 

 Island Sonnd near New York City. 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 {Haliclueriis grypus). 



'Ann. New York Lyceum Nat. Sci., vol. i, 1824, p. 94. 



