iSi THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



NOTES. 



Grey Seals at Skerry vore. — The colony of Grey Seals 

 (^Halichcerus grypus), numbering anything from sixty to eighty, take 

 up their residence on the outlying rocks here every summer. The 

 majority of them leave about October, before stormy winter weather 

 sets in. Last autumn this was the case, but during November the 

 weather remained settled and a lot of them returned to the rock, 

 and quite a number of baby seals were then seen. Some of the 

 young ones were still wearing their beautiful white coats, while some 

 were changing into the grey which they afterwards wear. A few 

 adult Seals remained here all winter, and it was a most interesting 

 sight to watch them on a stormy day playing about in the broken 

 surf close beside the rock, often seeking out the place where the 

 surf was breaking most, and playing and rolling about in the middle 

 of it, with evidently something of the same kind of enjoyment as a 

 cat gets from lying in the sun on a warm day. About the end of 

 April they were back here in full summer strength, and on a fine 

 day it is no unusual sight to see thirty or forty of them on one 

 rock — great awkward brutes the size of cows. They do not seem 

 to be very sociable, as when one selects a particular piece of rock 

 to lie on, he will defend that place with wild roars and vicious bites 

 against any intruders. The bodies of the older ones generally 

 bear great scars, the result, I have no doubt, of this pugnacity. 

 Curiosity is a trait in their character which seems well developed; 

 should one be fishing or moving unconcernedly about on the rock, 

 a Seal is sure to appear at no great distance and watch every 

 movement intently. Beginning at some little distance away, he 

 will gradually, as a rule, come closer, stop and stand up in the 

 water to get a good view, then come on a little bit, remain stationary 

 awhile, and then stand up again before coming on. If one remains 

 fairly quiet, a Seal will come on till he is quite near ; but should one 

 move or make any noise, he will disappear at once, only to reappear 

 at a safer distance and go through the whole manoeuvre again. — 

 Robert Wilson, Skerryvore Lighthouse. 



Sea-birds and Oil. — On 22nd June, when in Kingsbarns 

 village, we heard rumours of the strange appearance of quantities 

 of oil on the beach, and on going down found the whole length of 

 shore speckled with little patches of oil and the rocks covered all 

 over with a thick coating of the same, only worse, as it was like 



