Phoca. MAMMALIA. FERA. 17 



winter, its footsteps are traced in the snow to the springs of fresh-water which 



it visits The fur of the otter is valuable, and forms an article of export in 



the northern isles. The animal, when taken young, is easily tamed, is docile, 

 grateful, and will catch fish for its master. 



Gen. XV. PHOCA. Seal.— All the grinders nearly uniform 

 in their appearance ; six incisors above, and four below. 

 Fur short. Fore-legs short, and inclosed in the skin ; hind- 

 legs nearly coalesce with the body ; pelvis narrow. Sleeps 

 on stones ; breeds in caves ; is easily killed by a blow on 

 the nose. Might be domesticated with advantage. Yields 

 oil. — The skin is made into leather. 



21. P. vUulina. Common seal. — Body about six feet in 

 length ; colour various. 



Vitulus mar. Merr. Pin. 167 — Sib. Scot. p. 10 — Phoca, Rat/, Quad. 189. 



Lin. Svst. 1. p. 56. 1 Pen. Brit. Zool. 1. 137 — Flem. Phil. Zool. tab. 1. 



f. 3. X Sea-calf, Soil; S, Selch, Pouart, Cowie, Tangfish; W, Moel- 



rhon ; G, Ron On all our shores and large estuaries. 



Seals are extremely watchful, and seldom remain long without raising their 

 heads and looking around. They are expert divers, and can seldom be shot 

 in the water. They prey on fish of all kinds, and in the estuaries are most 

 destructive to salmon. They display considerable ingenuity in evading being 

 captured by the net, into -which they occasionally enter in search of their 

 prey, creepiDg out at the bottom, or leaping over it at the surface. They 

 sometimes enter fresh-water lakes in pursuit of their prey. In the Statisti- 

 cal Account (vol. vi. p. 260.) of the parish of North Knapdale, by the Rev. 

 Archibald Campbell, it is said, that Lochow, which is about twenty miles in 

 length, and three in breadth, " abounds with plenty of the finest salmon ; 

 and, what is uncommon, the seal comes up from the ocean, through a very ra- 

 pid river, in quest of this fish, and retires to the sea at the approach of win- 

 ter." They breed about midsummer, bringing forth their young, which are 

 two in number, in caves on the coast. Seals were formerly used as food, 

 though their flesh is dark coloured. At present they are sought after on ac- 

 count of their skin, and the oil which they yield. A few of the young ones 

 are slain in the caves in which they were brought forth. The old ones are 

 shot when at rest on sand-banks, or rocks, or taken in nets. Sometimes they 

 are destroyed by recurved iron pikes, secured in beams of wood fixed on the 

 banks, which they frequent, near low water-mark ; the seals, at a proper time 

 of tide, are surprised, and driven rapidly into the water, when they are 

 interrupted and wounded by the pikes, and felled with clubs. According to 

 Dean Monroe, seals, when on the ban':s at Lochegrenord, in Islay, were slain 

 with trained dogs. They are ea.-ily tamed. They are occasionally subject to 

 epizooty. About fifty years ago, mid.itudes of carcases were cast ashore 

 in every bay in the north of Scotland, Orkney and Zetland, and numbers were 

 found at sea in a sickly state. 



Mr Pennant mentions one taken near Chester in May 1766, which, at the 

 time, was nearly naked ; only the head and a small spot beneath each fore-leg 

 being hairy, Brit. Zool. i. p. 139. In the last edition of the same work (1812), 

 this var. is described as a distinct species, Pied Seal, with the nose tapered and 

 elongated ; the fore-head black ; the hind-head and throat white, with a spot 

 beneath each fore-leg of the same colour ; hind-feet dirty Avliite ; remainder 

 an intense black ; i. p. 177- 



The relics of the seal have been found in the marine diluvium which oc- 

 curs on the banks of the Forth towards the head of the estuary. 



VOL. I. B 



