42 The hish Naturalist. March, 



a thick woolly coat of perfectly white fur, and apparently 

 that coat is not usually shed until the cub takes to the 

 water. Now in the Common Seal this coat seems to be shed 

 at birth or even before, while in the Grey Seal the white 

 fur remains for a month or more. We have kept young 

 Grey Seals in the Dublin Zoological Gardens in their white 

 coats until they were nearly four feet in length, and they 

 are thus very easily distinguished from the Common Seal 

 of the same size. 



The term Common Seal, I may mention, is a misnomer 

 as far as Ireland is concerned, for the common Irish seal 

 is certainly the Grey Seal {Halichoerus grypus). Among the 

 seventeen Irish seal skulls that have been collected from 

 such specimens as were accidentally killed round the coast, 

 twelve belong to the (irey Seal and five only to the Common 

 Seal {Phoca vitulina). Whether this represents actually the 

 true proportion of seals of the two species, we cannot 

 determine, but I think there can be no doubt that the 

 great majority of seals caught in fishermen's nets off the 

 Irish coast are Grey Seals. 



From the above remarks it may be inferred that as yet 

 we are unable to discriminate between the two species from 

 the colour or structure of the fur. As a rule the Grey Seal 

 has a dark grey fur, while it is often yellowish -grey in the 

 other species, but both are subject to great variation in 

 colour. Yet we possess a valuable distinguishing character 

 in the skull and teeth. Anyone examining the cheek-teeth 

 can readily tell the Grey Seal from the Common Seal by 

 the simple heavy conical teeth characterising the former 

 species, while the latter has composite teeth with several 

 cusps resembling little combs. But here we are confronted 

 with a further difficulty, for the Bearded Seal, the Harp 

 Seal and the Ringed Seal have all composite teeth like the 

 Common Seal. Moreover the two former are said to have 

 been noticed off the west coast of Ireland, although there 

 is no definite evidence that they do inhabit Irish waters. 



Now it is of interest that among the skins and skulls in 

 the Irish National Museum collections there is one skin, and 

 a skull belonging to it, which are identical with the Ringed 



