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VI. Remarks on the Species of Seals (Phocidce) inhabiting the Irish Seas. 

 By Robert Ball, Esq., M.R.I.A., &c. 



Read 12th December, 1836. 



It has been often said, that the history of the seal family is more obscure than 

 that of almost any other group of the mammalia ; and though much has been 

 done by Fabricius, Nilsson, Thieneman, F. Cuvier, and others, still a great deal 

 remains to be accomplished, before we can obtain a correct knowledge even of 

 the species inhabiting our own shores. 



Some years since I formed an opinion that I could distinguish four species of 

 seals on the southern coasts of Ireland, but finding only two acknowledged as 

 British, by zoologists, I became desirous of ascertaining which was the fact, and 

 accordingly collected specimens from various parts of the coast. After having 

 accumulated a number for this purpose, I endeavoured, in the first place, to 

 ascertain of what species the seal of most frequent occurrence was ; and with the 

 kind assistance of Doctor Scouler, searched, but in vain, all the authorities to 

 which access could be had in Dublin, while, at the same time, research was made 

 by a distinguished naturalist, in London, with no better success. However, before 

 deciding that the animal was altogether unknown to authors, I deemed it prudent to 

 lay the matter before the British Association at Bristol, where Professor Nilsson was 

 present. On inspection of crania he pronounced it to be his Halichoerus Griseus, 

 (Phoca Gryphus of Fabricius,) and stated that it was described by him in his Scan- 

 dinavian Fauna as the type of a new genus distinct from Phoca, and that it inhabited 

 the North Sea and the Baltic. The characters on which his generic distinction is 

 founded I could not ascertain from him, nor have I been able to get access to his 

 work either here or in London. However the structure of the teeth in Hali- 

 choerus is alone quite sufficient to constitute a generic difference, the Molares* 



• In some specimens the posterior molar has two or more roots, but this seems an accidental 

 variety of form. 



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