HOODED SEAL 59 



HOODED OK BLADDER-NOSE SEAL. 



CYSTOrHOEA CKISTATA {ErxL). 



One of the very few authentic instances of the capture 

 of this inhabitant of high latitudes on the British coasts, is 

 that of a young male taken opposite St Andrews on 22nd 

 July 1872, and of which the late Mr Eobert Walker, of the 

 LTniversity of that town, gave a detailed description at the 

 time in the " Scottish Naturalist " (vol. ii., p. 1). It was 

 about 4 feet in length — 47 inches was the exact measure- 

 ment — and "when discovered it was reposing, near low- 

 water mark, on the top of one of the ledges of rock that 

 stretch out into the sea." 



It has been suggested that the " sundry fishes of monstrous 

 shape," mentioned by Boece, " with cowls over their heads 

 like unto monks, and in the rest resembling the body of 

 man," whose appearance in the Firth of Forth in 1577 

 caused such consternation among the superstitious folks of 

 those days, may have been Hooded Seals. 



