4H OF QJUADRUPEDS. 



rivers, in which, and in our alpine lakes, it makes great deftruc- 

 tion of the more valuable fifties, living in .luxury, and like a 

 glutton, on falmon, pike, and trout, feeding often only on the 

 fhoulders of the falmon, and leaving the reft for lefs dainty 

 palates. In the deep waters it purfues them with a furprifmg 

 celerity, and with an almoft never-failing fuccefs. It is a crea- 

 ture of a grim afpect, having large and fierce eyes, and whif- 

 kers between the nofe and mouth ; the ears fhort and round, not 

 in the upper part of the forehead, as in other animals, but on 

 the confines of the neck ; the legs fhort and ftrong ; the feet 

 broad, and connected by a membrane ; a fharp claw in each 

 toe ; the tail long, and very bufhy ; the general cloathing of the 

 fur a chefnut-brown, with a flight tinct of grey, pretty glofTy. 



I 



The fea-calf (f) in the warm {ummer-months often leaves 

 -the fea to fleep upon the fea-rocks at the -Fanz-iflands, and other 

 jocks near Berwick upon Tweed, where they are often killed for 

 the fake of their fkins for horfe-furniture, and other ufes. To 

 fleep in fecurity, and to prevent danger by furprize, one of them 

 ufually ftands ceminel to give the reft notice, and if attacked, 

 defend themfelves with an extraordinary courage, cafting ftoncs 

 by the help of their hinder-legs with a furprizing violence, and 

 fometimes at a great diftance, upon the aflailants. Being in lefs 

 fear of women than men, they often fall by the hands of men 

 attired like women. There is one very great peculiarity in its 

 flructure, being the only viviparous quadruped known to be 

 without exterior ears ; its ears being only two fmall apertures. 



(f) Phica f. vitulus marinus. Gefn. aqu. p. 702. Raj. quadr. p. 189. Vitulus marinus. 

 Rotid. Pile. i. p. 453. Phoca. Cbarlet. Pifc. p. 48, 49. n. 6. Phoca dentibus caninis tectis. 

 Linn. Syft. Nat. 36. Faun. Suec. p. 4. n. u. SEAL. SEA-CALF. Cbarlet. ]. c. SEA- 

 3. Lancrftfi LEIGH'S LANCASHIRE, with a good Icon, by Start. 



