2 2 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITISH SEAS. 



Jiispida, but afterwards, both by that gentleman and Professor Bell, deter- 

 mined to belong to PJi. groenlandica. Doubts having been thrown on the 

 accuracy of this decision, Professor Bell, in the second edition of his ' British 

 Quadrupeds' p. 253, again states his belief that he was correct in assigning 

 them to the young of this species. These specimens are unfortunately lost. 

 Several supposed cases of the occurrence of this species are recorded, but in no 

 instance were they supported by the production of the animal itself. Dr. 

 Saxby {' ZooL' 1864) says that this Seal is not rare in bad weather in the 

 Voe of Baltasound, Shetland ; and Mr. H. Evans, of Darnley Abbey, Derby- 

 shire, in the year 1856, shot what he believes to have been a Greenland 

 Seal near Roundstone, county Galway, — " Unfortunately, the animal sank 

 and was lost ; but Mr. Evans, who is well acquainted with the common 

 and grey species, is perfectly certain that it was quite dififerent from 

 either" (Bell, 2 edit., p. 254). Perhaps the best authenticated case of 

 the supposed occurrence of this species on our shores is given by Mr. H. D. 

 Graham in Part I., vol. i. of the ' Proceedings of the Nat. Hist. Society of 

 Glasgow,' p. 53 (Feb. 24, 1863). Three large white Seals were seen by Mr. 

 Graham in Loch Tabert, Jura, Western Isles, lying on some shelving rocks, 

 about 300 or 400 yards from the shore. They were watched through an 

 excellent deer- stalking telescope for three hours, and Mr. Graham states that 

 the characteristic markings of the Harp Seal could be distinctly seen. He 

 also believes that, in three authentic instances, captures of zvliite Seals, of 

 extraordinary size, had been made, and states some particulars of the habits 

 and appearance of these animals, as communicated to him by the islanders — 

 to whom they appear to have been well known, — which render it highly 

 probable that they belonged to this species. ]\Ir. J. A. Harvie-Brown* also 

 saw four Seals, which he believes to have been of this species, on a rock in 



* 'Mammalia of the Outer Hebrides,' Proc. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasgow, 1879, p. 95. 



