70 COMMON BRITISH ANIMALS 



Seals have no external ears and their nostrils are on 

 the top of the snout. The grey seal measures about 

 8 feet in length, is much larger than the common seal, 

 which is but 4 or 5 feet long. 



When adult, the former is, as its name denotes, 

 grey in colour and sometimes spotted. When first 

 born the hair is white but it rapidly changes in colour, 

 assuming darker tints as the animal grows. The 

 common seal associates in large herds, often ascending 

 rivers to chase the salmon that are returning from 

 the sea. 



These little seals possess the faculty of educa- 

 bility in a remarkable degree, and will follow their 

 masters as far as their limited powers of locomotion 

 on land will permit, making great efforts to overcome 

 their incapacity. They are also peculiarly fascinated 

 by music. A resident in the Hebrides told Macgil- 

 livray the naturalist that "In walking along the shore 

 in districts where these seals were abundant in the 

 calm of a summer afternoon a few notes of my flute 

 would bring half a score of them within thirty or 

 forty yards of me, and there they would swim about 

 like so many black dogs, evidently delighted with the 

 sounds. For half an hour, or indeed for any length 

 of time I chose, I could fix them to the spot, and 

 when I moved along the water's edge they would 

 follow me with eagerness, like the dolphins, which, it 

 is said, attended Arion, as if anxious to prolong the 

 enjoyment. I have frequently witnessed the same 

 effect when out on a boat excursion. The sound of 

 the flute, or of a common fife blown by one of the 

 boatmen, was no sooner heard than half a dozen 



