| OCR Text |
Show 1871.] PROF. FLOWER ON PHOCA HISPIDA. 507 should be described in sufficient detail to leave no doubt as to the correctness of the specific determination. Zoologists are now generally agreed that four well-defined species of Seal of the restricted genus Phoca * (an extremely natural group, characterized by having i. \, c.\,p. \, m. \, total 34, all the teeth of the premolar and molar series, except the most anterior, with two roots) inhabit the shores north of the Atlantic. These are P. barbata, P. grcenlandica, P. vitulina, and a fourth, about the specific name of which there is unfortunately no general agreement. To account for and to endeavour to clear up the difficulty of the synonymy of this species (to which the skull in the Norwich Museum belongs) it will be necessary to refer to the principal facts concerning the literary history of the genus. The natives of Greenland appear to have long ago distinguished these four species, and to have bestowed distinctive vernacular names upon them, which are given in Crantz's well-known history of that country, published in 1765, though the descriptions which accompany them have, as might be expected, no scientific accuracy. In the 12th edit, of the 'Systema Naturae' (1767) all the true Seals (as above restricted) are confounded under the name of Phoca vitulina ; but in Gmelin's edition (1788) P. vitulina, P. grcenlandica, P. barbata, and P. hispida are distinguished, besides others which are now considered to belong to different genera, and therefore do not concern us in the present inquiry. Between these dates O. F. Midler's ' Prodromus Zoologiee Danicse' (Copenhagen, 1776) had been published, and contained in the introduction (p. viii) a list of Greenland animals communicated to the author by O. Fabricius, after the rest of the work had been printed. In this list P. barbata, P. grcenlandica, and P.fcetida are named, in addition to P. vitulina, the only true Phoca mentioned in the body of the work, and which was evidently, as in the ' Systema Naturse,' a compound of several species, as shown by the various vernacular names assigned as synonyms. No description is given of these new species; but the Greenland names are added, P. fcetida being the Neitsek and Neitsilek. In 1780 Fabricius published his ' Fauna Grcenlandica,' containing tolerably full accounts of all the above-mentioned four species of Greenland Seals ; and, although descriptions of the external peculiarities of such very variable animals as Seals, unless extremely detailed and accompanied by osteological characters, are very difficult to recognize, there can be little doubt that the four species now known to exist are intended, and that Fabricius's P. fcetida is the animal now under consideration. The statement " est heec minima omnium " is alone almost sufficient to establish this point. Neitsek, Crantz, is given among the synonyms of the species. In the mean time, however, the third part of Schreber's ' Sauge-thiere' had appeared (1778 is the date on the titlepage of the volume ; but the part must have been published previously, as it is * Nilsson, Skanrt. Fauna, 1820; equivalent to F. Cuvier's Calloccphalus, M . m. du Mus. xi. 1824. |
