The Scottish Naturalist. 157 



■which he had formerly stated in the Zoological Journal to be P. 

 barbata, had, upon further investigation, proved to be If. grypus. 

 He also adds that an old gentleman, who formerly rented 

 these Islands, informed him that the seals were more abundant 

 there some forty or fifty years ago than they are now, and that in 

 1772 he killed seventy-two young seals, and once also fourteen 

 old ones in one day on the Crimstone Rock, all of this species. 

 Dr. L. Edmondston 1 was not so easily induced to give up the 

 name of P. barbata. He had, moreover, better opportunities 

 of observing the habits of the large seals of the Shetland Islands, 

 as well as examining them alive and dead, than falls to the lot 

 of most mortals. He expresses the opinion after the publica- 

 cation of " Bell's British Quadrupeds " that the Haaf-fish or 

 large seal of these islands was P. barbata, and that Bell had 

 figured the cranium of a different species from the Haaf-fish as 

 that of the animal in question. " The figure of it looks very 

 like the male barbata with the exception ot the teeth." What- 

 ever may be the facts of the case as to this, it is not quite easy 

 to reconcile the accounts of the disposition manifested by the 

 large seal of the Irish coast and that of the Shetland Islands 

 when in captivity, as given by Ball and Edmondston, if the 

 observation alluded to were in both cases made on the same 

 species of seal, and of a similar age. The former states that his 

 father had made several attempts to rear and tame this seal, but 

 all in vain. It appears scarcely susceptible of domestication. 

 The latter, on the other hand, gives it altogether a different 

 character. He says that a young male, which he took from a 

 cave, in a day or two became as attached to him as a dog, that 

 he knew no animal capable of displaying more affection than 

 he did, and that his temper was the gentlest imaginable. He 

 also gives an interesting account of a female which he had in 

 captivity for some time. This animal was carried daily in a 

 hand-barrow to the sea to bathe &c, by and bye she was 

 allowed to go fairly into the sea without any restraint, and she 

 regularly returned after a short interval, and of her own accord 

 mounted her carriage to be taken to or from home. She was 

 one day allowed to go to sea in a thick fall of snow and did not 

 find her way back. The same author also mentions a young 

 Greenland seal, Phoca groenlandica, that he saw shot in the Bay 

 of Burrafirth, in October, 1830. Had Edmondston preserved 



i Memoirs, "Wernerian Society, 1839. 



