64 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



by a few notes, stating that the species is well known, and tliat in 

 an adult state it is seven or eight feet long, the body being fully 

 thicker than a herring barrel. The female has her young in 

 November, and it is found three or four yards above high-water 

 mark, sometimes quite among the ferns and heather. The young 

 do not take the water till six weeks old, when they weigh seventy 

 or eighty pounds. If disturbed, however, the old one will make 

 off with her calf, which she does by taking it up on her back, and 

 so plunging into the sea. Even after a long dive, on rising to the 

 surface, the young one remains securely on its mother's back. 

 She comes to suckle it regularly at high-water; but her instinct 

 teaches her to choose such spots as render it impossible for 

 any one either to approach or lay in wait for them without 

 being seen or scented. Mr Graham observed that the description 

 of the markings of this white seal agreed exactly with that of the 

 harp seal, which is not likely to be mistaken, at least in the adult 

 state, for any other British species; but at the same time he 

 expressed his belief that, among the islanders generally, there 

 were three large seals confounded with each other — the grey seal 

 (Halichcerus gnjpkus); the great seal (Phoca barbata); and the Green- 

 land seal (Phoca Grcenlandica of Miiller). 



Mr Gray also communicated some facts of interest in connection 

 with the cormorant and oyster catcher, selected from Mr Graham's 

 correspondence. 



II. — Notes on the Natural History of Bute, 



From a manuscript of last century, written by Mr John Blain, 



Commissary of the Isles, communicated by Mr John Eaton Reid. 



Tliis paper contained many interesting records of the fauna and 

 flora of that island, showing the changes that have taken place 

 since the time of Mr Blain's researches, many of the birds especi- 

 ally being now either extinct as British, or driven to remote 

 districts. 



March 31st, 1863. 



John Scouler, M.D., LL.D., F.L.S., President, in the chair. 

 The following gentlemen were elected resident members: — Messrs 

 James Wingate, James M'Pherson, Mungo Campbell, Peter Clark, 

 William Young, and Bruce Barclay, M.D. 



