March, igir. The frisk Naturalist. 41 



SOME NOTES ON IRISH SEALS. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, PH.D., M.R.I. A. 



I HAVE recently had an opportunity of re-examining the 

 skins and skulls of the Irish seals contained in the National 

 Museum of Ireland, and I herewith give some of the results, 

 which may be of interest to the readers of the Irish 

 Naturalist. 



Externally the different kinds of seals inhabiting the 

 Irish seas are very much like one another, and no very 

 striking characters seem to separate them. Moreover few 

 naturalists ever get an opportunity of observing seals in 

 their natural habitat, so that our knowledge of them is 

 practically limited to the skins and skulls contained in 

 museums and the few living specimens which find their 

 way to our Zoological Gardens. The late Dr. Robert BalP 

 remarked that the Gre}^ Seal may be readily distinguished 

 from the Common Seal by its fierce mien, but I have failed 

 to recognise that character among the seals that have been 

 kept in confinement from time to time in the Dublin 

 Zoological Gardens. It is probable that the character he 

 noticed was due to the powerful cluster of bristles — a kind 

 of beard — which the Grey Seal develops in old age. Even in 

 young specimens of the Grey Seal, when they are about the 

 size of full-grown Common Seals, these bristles on each 

 side of the nostril are very perceptibly thicker than in the 

 other species, and the finer ones are darker in colour. But 

 that after all is not much to distinguish a species by, when 

 it is some distance off and only occasionally lifts its head 

 above the water. 



That the Grey Seal attains a much greater size than the 

 Common Seal is a more useful distinguishing character. 

 Any seal of a length of six feet or more is almost sure to be 

 a Grey Seal, for the latter grows to a length of nearly ten 

 feet, while the Common Seal never exceeds half that size. 

 Another still more striking feature is found in the young 

 Grey Seal. All seals, as far as we know, possess at birth 



' Ball. R., " Remarks on the Species of Seals iuhabitiiiK tlie Irish Seas." — 

 Trans. R. Irish Academy, vol. xviii., 1835-38. 



A 



