508 Short Communications : — 



at play close to its track, but apparently trusting for security 

 to the dusk of a summer's evening. The young ones are 

 playful and active. Fishes seem to have a peculiar dread of 

 the otter ; for I am credibly informed that it has been seen to 

 collect into a scull [shoal] a vast number of trouts in a river, 

 and to drive them before it, until the greater part have thrown 

 themselves on shore. 



An Individual of the Great Seal P (Fhbca barbdta) taken at 

 Padstow, Cornwall. — The specimen was 38 in. long, and 

 25 in. round close behind the fore flippers ; but the measure- 

 ments were made after it had been stuffed, and it had shrunk 

 in the drying. From snout to eye, 3 in. ; from the front of 

 the mouth to its angle, 2J in. ; teeth conical, pointed, a little 

 curved ; front teeth shorter ; canine teeth numerous, those of 

 the upper and lower jaw interlocking ; the grinders could not 

 be examined. Upper lip broad, rounded, in two lobes. 

 Nostrils separated by a black and naked channel. Whiskers 

 on the lobes of the upper lip, long and numerous; one row 

 contracted in many parts of their course, as I have seen in 

 the sea lion of Tristan d'Acunha. From the snout to the 

 orifice of the ear, 5\ in. ; no external ear : from the snout to 

 the shoulder, 14jin. ; consequently the neck is long: from 

 the heel of the hand of the fore flipper to the point of the toe, 

 8jin. ; tail, 2J in. long; hind flippers, 7 in. long; breadth 

 of the hind foot at the claws, 8 in. ; body, 1 3 in. round just 

 before the tail. Five claws on each foot, long, sharps curved. 

 Hair straight, silky, abundant. Three whiskers a little above 

 the hinder angle of each eye. Colour white, with numerous 

 black spots and patches. This specimen was taken in a net, 

 near Padstow, in Cornwall, in January, 1832. The only 

 figure I am able to find is in Gesner, where the likeness is 

 good, except the forehead, which is too high. I suppose the 

 specimen to be of the species Ph^ca barbata, which Turton 

 says is white when young, and dark when old. It is probable 

 that this specimen is in the intermediate state, with the dark 

 appearing through the white ground. - — J» Couch Polperro^ 

 May 29. 1834. [Mr. Couch has sent us a sketch along 

 with this description.] 



Birds. — Notices on a few of the Birds of Lower Canada. — 

 The following notices on a few of the birds of Lower Canada 

 were written during a residence at the He aux Noix, a small 

 island, containing an English garrison, on Lake Champlain, 

 near the mouth of the river Richelieu, a tributary of the 

 magnificent St. Lawrence, and from personal observation. 



The very few birds that pass the winter in this part of 

 Canada, and the difiiculty there is in finding them, make the 



