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Show 1868.] 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 m y opinion) have the slightest claims to specific distinction f, the supposed differences being merely such as age or the ordinary variations between one individual and another would produce. By such well-meaning efforts, misdirected, 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 Fauna. As might be expected, the character of the Greenland Mammalian fauna partakes of a sarcophagous type, the phytophagous species proper 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 zoologists followed will be a sufficient safeguard that no great error has been committed. Accordingly the nomenclature of Baird's * General Report on the Mammalia of North America' is chiefly followed, 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 synonymy 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 Illiger "J", 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, Trichechidee, and Cystophoridce, 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 . Fre'deric 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\\ (Callocephalus), Linne's Phoca vitulina should have been chosen as the type of the genus, while * Proceedings of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. t Prof. Beinhardt, who, as Inspector of the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen, has every means of arriving at a determination from an examination of a large number of skulls, writes to m e that he has arrived at the same opinion. t Prodomus, p. 138 (1811). § Skand. Faun. i. p. 275. j| F. Cuvier, Memoires du Museum, xi. p. 182. |