192 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



of the globe to another, the sea serving to them as a great high- 

 way forming a continuous zone of communication, and not as a 

 dividing barrier. Consequently our number of species of 

 Cetaceans, in proportion to the whole number of species known, 

 is probably larger than that of any other group of mammals in 

 our fauna. 



Order : Camivora. 

 Family : Phocidae. 



1. Halichccrus yrypus (Fabr.). Grey Seal.- — I am indebted 

 for what I know as to this species to Mr. Alexander Gray, Curator 

 of the Millport Marine Biological Station. Its early occurrence 

 is vouched for by a tooth which Mr. Gray found in a kitchen 

 midden near Campbeltown, and which Dr. Joseph Anderson 

 identified. Mr. Gray also has information that, up to about 

 1860, two grey seals were known to live, summer and winter, 

 on Paterson's Rock, in the Sound of Sanda (6). They dis- 

 appeared without any known reason. 



When Mr. Gray was dredging off the Little C umbrae, on 8th 

 September, 1900, a grey seal rose leisurely to the surface within 

 30 yards from his boat. A good view was obtained of it, as it 

 was seen three times altogether. Mr. Gray thinks it was three 

 times the size of an ordinary seal, one of which he saw on the 

 same day near the same place (5). 



2. Phoca vitulina, Linn. Common Seal. — I have notes of the 

 recent occurrence of this species all over our area from Sanda 

 upwards. One was shot so far up as two miles above Port- 

 Glasgow in 1890. Loch Fyne is apparently a breeding resort, 

 and an old seal with two pups were seen near Largs in 1899. 

 According to the new " Statistical Account " (V., 1845), a 

 favourite haunt is a rock in the sea not far from Troon. This 

 probably refers to the Lady Isle, which is still frequented. I 

 was so fortunate as to see a herd of from 30 to 40 there in 

 June, 1900. The probability is that this species is much more 

 common than is generally supposed, although there is now no 

 seal-fishing. This seems to have been pursued in " Clyde " 

 about 1791 (13). 



3. [P. groelandica, Fabr. Greenland or Harp Seal. — Mr. F. 

 Gordon Pearcey informs me (in lit., 30th October, 1899) that he 



