SEALS. 



157 



Distribution. — As arctic in its distribution as the preceding 

 species, the Harp, or, as it is often called, the Greenland Seal, is 

 an equally rare and casual visitor to the British Islands, and, 

 indeed, it is only recently that a skull has been definitely 

 identified as pertaining to a British specimen. The general 

 distribution of the species is the same as that of the Ringed 

 Seal, since it occurs in the northern seas of both hemispheres. 

 As regards its occurrence in Britain, two Seals killed in the 

 Severn in 1836 were referred to this species by Bell, and 

 although doubts were subsequently thrown on the correct- 

 ness of this identification, the same gentleman maintained its 



Skull of the Harp-Seal. 



accuracy. Gray also identified with this species the skin of a 

 young Seal taken in the Thames at Isleworth in 1858; and 

 Macgillivray provisionally did the same with another from the 

 Firth of Forth. More satisfactory is the evidence with regard 

 to an immature Seal captured in Morecambe Bay in January, 

 1868, the skull of which is now preserved in the museum at 

 Kendal ; Sir William Turner {Journ. Anatomy and Physiology y 

 vol. ix., p. 163) confidently assigning it to the species under 

 consideration. Regarding its alleged occurrence in the Scottish 

 Isles, Mr. H. D. Graham {Proc. Nat. Hist. Sac. Glasgow, vol. i., 



