SAND DUNES AND SALT MARSHES 



Sometimes he swims along the surface and 

 occasionally displays the edges of his hind- 

 flippers above water. 



The spirit of curiosity displayed by this 

 animal is taken advantage of by seal-hunters, 

 who conceal themselves in a blind, and, wa- 

 ving a handkerchief on a stick, sometimes 

 succeed in beguiling a seal within gun-shot. 

 Unfortunately a seal, when killed, almost 

 always sinks, so that very few are recov- 

 ered. They are afterwards cast up on the 

 beach, and suggest from afar the whale fac- 

 tories of Labrador. Why dogs delight to roll 

 in these unsaA^ory derelicts is one of the un- 

 solved problems of animal psj^chology. A pic- 

 turesque instance of the curiosity of the seal, 

 or possibly of its fondness for music, is inter- 

 estingly told by the Eev. Mr. Dunbar in 

 Macgillivray's work on British Quadrupeds: 

 ^^ During a residence of some years in one 

 of the Hebrides, I had many opportunities 

 of witnessing this peculiarity; and, in fact, 

 could call forth its manifestation at pleasure. 

 In walking along the shore in the calm of a 

 summer afternoon, a few notes from my flute 

 would bring half a score of them within a few 

 yards of me; and then they would swim about, 



184 



