15 



"Bladder-nose" is well known as a visitor to the Vae Skerries, 

 Shetland. A young example was killed near St. Andrews on the 

 22nd July, 1872, as recorded by Mr. R. Walker (Scot. Xat., n., p. 1), 

 and two others have been obtained on the English coasts. As far 

 back as 1577 mention is made in Hollinshed's " Cronicle " of 

 " sundry fishes of monstrous shape, with cowls over their heads like 

 unto Monks and in the rest resembling the body of Man," whose 

 appearance in the Firth of Forth was followed by pestilence and 

 murrain. These may not improbably have been Hooded Seals. 



20. Halichoerus gryphus (Fabricius). 



Gray Seal. 



Ore, Haaf-fish. 



Gael., Tapvaist (in the Hebrides). 



Very abundant on the rocky shores of the Outer Hebrides, where 

 the great breeding-place at Haskeir, off North Uist, has often been 

 described, and among the Orkney and Shetland Islands. Com- 

 paratively rare on the coasts of the mainland, especially on the east; 

 but Prof. Turner has recorded it from near Montrose and St. 

 Andrews, and believes it to be more common than is usually sup- 

 posed on the east coast, where the Tay fishermen call it the " Black 

 Seal" {J out. Anat. and Phys., IV., pp. 270-271). The Gray Seal 

 was formerly confused with the Arctic Phoca barbata, but there is 

 no good evidence that the latter has ever visited the British coasts 

 (cf. Bell's Br. Quad,, 2nd ed., pp. 238, 263). 



Family: TEICHECIIIDAE. 

 21. Trichechus rosmarus, Linnaeus. 



Walrus. 



Now a very rare straggler, though it was probably a more fre- 

 quent visitor to our coasts in old times. Sir B. Sibbald mentions 

 it on the authority of Boethius, and its remains have been found 

 in peat-bogs in England. One was killed at Caolas Stocnis, on 

 the east coast of Harris, in December, 1817, and was examined by 

 Macgillivray (Xat. Libr., xxn., p. 223). A second, shot in June, 

 1825, on Edday, Orkney, was recorded by Mr. B. Scarth (Edin. 

 Phil. Mag., xiil, p. 383), and its head is preserved in the University 

 Museum at Edinburgh. A third is reported by Baikie and Heddle 

 to have been seen in Hoy Sound in 1827 {Hist. Xat, Ore, p. 14), 

 and a fourth was killed in April, 1841, on the East Heiskar, near 



