26 Common and Grey Seals. 



known by its popping up its head, having a good look round and 

 thus satisfying its curiosity of what is going on among" the 

 sailing craft. The lower end of the Ray at certain times is an 

 attractive resort for shrimps and young fish, which Phoca has 

 apparently appreciated. 



In other localities within our Sea Fisheries District, one, 

 sometimes two in company, frequents the estuaries : e.g. (the Stour, 

 Essex), the Blackwater*, Roach, Medway, Stour (Kent), and 

 even Dover and Folkestone harbours. 



FIG. 1. 



Common Seal (Phoca viht- 

 lina), showing its belry mode 

 of progression when on land. 



In none of these places, though, are they ever met with in 

 such numbers as in the Wash, where, in 1897, some 125 were 

 counted lying basking on the sands, besides numerous others in 

 the water. The Fishery authorities there seem averse to their 

 destruction, though the seals must play dire havoc among the 

 fish and shrimps. It is quite possible that the stragglers to 

 our estuaries may be derived from the above more permanent 

 colony off Norfolk ; while the chance ones at Dover and 

 Folkestone may have come from the neighbourhood of Beachy 

 He*id, where, it is said, a small family have settled. 



It is rather perplexing to distinguish between the Common 

 and the (2) GREY SEAL (Halichcerus gryphus) when in the water, 

 unless the latter happened to be an old animal, whose greater 

 size would give the clue. Brief notices of specimens seen or 

 shot, and suspected to be the Grey Seal, have generally turned 

 out mere supposition ; but one, authoritatively identified, '" was 

 captured in fishing-nets off the Essex coast" about 1838. f 



* Our Chairman (E. A. Fitch) has recorded repeated visits of P. vitulina thither ; 

 one called by his informant a "tiger seal," Mr. Fitch hints m*y have been a Ringed 

 Seal (Phoca f/xtidu) or a Hooded Seal (C/ttopkora mrtofo) ; but as the Common Seal 

 exhibits great variety in colour, we are inclined to think it was this species." Kssex 

 Naturalist," Vols. II., III., 1888-89, also Dr. Laver, op. cit. 



t Paget. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., VII. (1841), p. 79. 



