THE GREY SEAL. 399 



identical with the Rough or Bristled Seal of Pennant 

 (P. hispida, Sclireb. ; P. fcetida, Fabr.) ? "This species," 

 Fabricius tells us, " usually measures only four feet in 

 length, and very seldom exceeds four and a half, with a 

 perpendicular height of ten inches. It scarcely ever 

 frequents the high seas, but delights in retired bays, and 

 in the neighbourhood of the ice on the coast, from which, 

 especially when old, it very unwillingly departs. The 

 period of gestation is eight months, and the young are 

 brought forth in February, on the fixed ice, its proper 

 haunt. Here it has a hole, not so much for breathing as 

 for fishing, near which it remains solitary, rarely in pairs. 

 It is the most incautious of the Seals, both in the water 

 and on the ice. Whilst asleep on the wave, it is sometimes 

 pounced on by the eagle and borne to the shore." 



And may not the Marbled Seal be identical with the 

 Bodack, or Old Man, of the Hebrides, which Mr. Wilson 

 thus describes : " It is much the least of the Seals with 

 which I am acquainted, and, indeed, so small that for a 

 long time I entertained the notion (contrary to the firm 

 opinion of the natives) that it was the young of the 

 Common Seal. This view, however, I consider erroneous, 

 for they are not even the size of a Seal three months old 

 of the common kind. Besides, they are frequently killed 

 of this size with grey beards and decayed teeth. I have 

 frequently noticed that when on shore, on the same rock 

 with other Seals, they do not lie near them, but a little 

 way apart. They are but few in number, and I cannot 

 recollect of seeing any two of them together. They are 

 not, however, at all so shy as the Common Seal, nor so 

 solitary as the Tapvaist, or Great Seal." 



The Grey Seal (Gra Skill, S\v. ; Phoca Gri/pus, Fabr. ; 

 Jlalichoerus Grypus, Nilss.) was comparatively scarce in 

 our Skiirgiird, as also, as it would seem, on the western 

 coast of Scandinavia ; but in the Baltic it is by all 



