ITS DOMESTIC HABITS. 395 



The cubs of most species of Seals when born are 

 covered with a sort of wool, which they retain for some 

 time, and then gradually assume their proper hairy dress. 

 Not so with the cub of the Common Seal ; for whilst still 

 in the mother's womb, it sheds its first woolly covering, 

 and when ushered into the world has acquired its second 

 or proper dress. This curious fact, of which, so far as I 

 am aware, English naturalists make no mention, was per- 

 fectly well known a century or more ago to old seal- 

 hunters. Eosted says, indeed, that if one closely examines 

 the cub immediately after birth, a portion of its first woolly 

 dress will always be seen lying loose on the hair of the 

 second, which statement has recently been fully corro- 

 borated by M. Wilhelm von Wright, who states that " on 

 opening females killed just prior to parturition, I have 

 invariably found the first dress of the young one lying 

 alongside of it in the foetus." 



The Common Seal is readily domesticated, and shows 

 much acuteness and intelligence, as must be evident to 

 every one who has seen the animals in the Zoological 

 Gardens. It, in short, becomes as much attached to its 

 master as a dog, and, like that faithful creature, will 

 caress the hand that feeds and fondles it. We read of 

 a Seal, for instance, that was so tame as " to lie 

 alongside of the fire amongst the dogs ; bathed in the 

 sea, and returned to the house ; " and of another, a 

 young one, of about two and a half feet in length, that 

 " sucked one's fingers readily, and was fond of cow's milk, 

 which it greedily drank. When thrown into the sea, it 

 speedily returned to the shore. Its favourite position was 

 the kitchen hearth, the stone of which was elevated about 

 four inches above the floor, and it generally laid itself so 

 close to the embers of a peat fire burning on the hearth, 

 that its fur was often singed. If carried to any other part 

 of the kitchen, it speedily found its way back to the hearth- 



