SEALS. 151 



occasionally protruding its head above the surface, sometimes 

 following a boat or vessel at a distance, but generally keeping 

 beyond reach of shot. It feeds exclusively on fishes, in pur- 

 suit of which it can remain several minutes immersed. At 

 low water it often betakes itself to rocks or small islands, on 

 which it reposes until the return of the tide; and I have seen 

 droves of twenty or more individuals thus basking in the sun. 

 In estuaries they sometimes repose on the sands, where they 

 are Table to be surprised, if the water be distant, for their 

 movements on land are exceedingly awkward, and their hurry 

 in endeavouring to escape when approached forms an amusing 

 sight, as they seem to tumble about in a ludicrous manner, throw- 

 ing themselves headlong into the water from the rocks. When 

 there are caverns on the coast, they find a more secure retreat 

 in them, since, if attacked, they can escape by diving." 



While in the sea, the Common Seal lives largely upon Floun- 

 ders; but it is also especially fond of Salmon and Sea-Trout, and 

 it is in pursuit of these latter that it so frequently ascends long 

 distances up rivers. The young — usually one, but occasionally 

 two in number — are born in June, or thereabouts, after a gesta- 

 tion of nine months. Although the new-born young are clothed 

 in a coat of white hairs, as in the case of the Grey Seal, yet it 

 appears that instead of being retained for two or three weeks, 

 as in the latter, this is replaced by the adult coat very shortly 

 after birth, the offspring at the same time taking to the water. 



The fondness of Seals for musical sounds is well-known, and 

 the following account, communicated to Macgillivray by a 

 resident in the Hebrides, illustrates this very graphically. " In 

 walking along the shore in districts where Seals were abundant 

 in the calm of a summer afternoon," writes the narrator, "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, 

 with their heads above water, like so many black dogs. 



