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Show 414 MR. R. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. [Julie 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 (Miill.), Gray. Phoca foetid a, Miill. Phoca hispida, O. Fab. Nat. Selskab. Skrifter, vol. i. 2. p. 74. Phoca bothnica, G m. Phoca fasciata, Shaw. Phoca annellata, Nilss. Phoca discolor, Gray. Phoca frederici, Less. Popular names.-Ringlad Skdl (Nilsson) ; 31orunge (GZdmann, 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, Greenlanders and Danes in Greenland) ; Floe-rat or Flaar-rat\ (of Northern English and Scotch sealers). It has been so often confounded 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 Inskeirsskal or Skdrfving, and Svart nol/ed-sal, or simply the Nollede. This is, in all probability, 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 fcetida of Fabricius (Fauna Grcenl. p. 13. no. 8) or the Phoca hispida described by the same author in the ' Naturhistoriske Selskabets Skrifter,' I. c, though Nilsson seemed in 1847 to have been doubtful (Skand. Fauna, i. p. 283). Descriptive remarks fyc.-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 on 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 cfc.-They delight to live in retired bays in the neighbourhood 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, I. c. t 1 have heaid the English sailors call them Dorrities; but this term is also used for the Uluebacks (P. gramlandicus). |