Definition of "phoca"

His charet swift in haste he thither steard, Which with a teeme of scaly Phocas bound Was drawne vpon the waues, that fomed him around.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie

With tangled fins, behind, huge Phocæ glide, And Whales and Grampi swell the distant tide.

1789, Erasmus Darwin, The Loves of the Plants, J. Johnson, page 68