i5* LLOYD'S NATURAL HISTORY. 



evidently delighted with the sounds. For half-an-hour, or, 

 indeed, for any length of time I chose, I could fix them to the 

 spot, and when I moved along the water's edge they would 

 follow me with eagerness, like the Dolphins, which, it is said, 

 attended Arion, as if anxious to prolong the enjoyment. I 

 have frequently witnessed the same effect when out on a boat- 

 excursion. The sound of the flute, or of a common fife, 

 blown by one of the boatmen, was no sooner heard than half- 

 a-dozen would start up within a few yards, wheeling round us 

 as long as the music played, and disappearing, one after 

 another, when it ceased. 



" Other occasions occurred during my residence in these 

 islands of witnessing the habits of these creatures. While 

 my pupils and I were bathing, which we often did in the 

 bosom of a beautiful bay in the island, named, from the 

 circumstance of its being the favourite haunt of the animal, 

 Seal-Bay, numbers of them invariably made their appear- 

 ance, especially if the weather was calm and sunny, and 

 the sea smooth, crowding around us at the distance of a few 

 yards, and looking as if they had some kind of notion that 

 we were of the same species, or at least genus, with them- 

 selves. The gambols in the water of my playful companions, 

 and their noise and merriment, seemed, to our imagination, to 

 excite them, and to make them course round us with greater 

 rapidity and animation. At the same time, the slightest at- 

 tempt on our part to act on the offensive, by throwing at them 

 a stone or a shell, was the signal for their instantaneous dis- 

 appearance, each, as it vanished, leaving the surface of the 

 water beautifully figured with a wavy succession of concentric 

 circles. 



" On hot days in summer I have seen great numbers of them 

 stretched in groups on the rocks at the bottom of Seal-Bay, 

 which had been left dry by the receding tide. There they 



