72 HAPPY HUNTING-GEOUNDS 



seal. One difficulty is that where there is one seal in the water 

 there are often several, and they have a distressing habit of being 

 under water together, which confuses the reckoning. My father 

 once timed a seal to stay under water for four and a half minutes, 

 but this is obviously nothing to what they can do if put to it. A 

 seal, both on land and water, seems only to breathe when he 

 happens to think of it. It is easy to distinguish when he is taking 

 in breath and when he is exhaling. In the former case the nostrils, 

 situated on the exact point of his nose, dilate into two little round 

 o's, each about the size of a sixpenny piece. When he exhales, the 

 strong muscles on the outside of each nostril automatically con- 

 tract, leaving two tiny crescent-shaped openings for the air to pass 

 out through, an arrangement which must be very convenient for 

 keeping the water out of his nostrils when diving deep. I have 

 often observed the expansion and contraction of these muscles with 

 a strong glass, and have been struck with the strange irregularity 

 of breathing. Generally, as far as I was able to ascertain, a seal 

 took about five times as long to exhale as to draw in breath ; but 

 sometimes, especially just before diving, he would draw breath 

 three or four times very slowly, and take practically no time to 

 exhale. 



Seals feed of course mostly upon shrimps, prawns, and fish, 

 always bolting the latter head first. A relative of mine who, when 

 a child, kept a tame seal, told me that she used often purposely to 

 give him a fish tail first, and that he invariably turned it round 

 before swallowing it. 



Does the common seal ever take birds ? I have never seen an 

 instance of this recorded, but incline to believe that he occasionally 

 does. It must be remembered that the harp seal (Phoca Green- 

 landica) undoubtedly does so, and there is therefore nothing inher- 

 ently improbable in the idea. My evidence, for what it is worth, 

 was given me by a keeper in Argyllshire whom I know well, and 

 know too to be a particularly keen and careful observer, He told 

 me that one day, when he was out with the rabbit-catcher to shoot 

 what he could for the house, he managed to get within range of a 

 flock of widgeon, and disdaining the niceties of sport, fired at them 

 on the water and hit five. Four were dead or disabled, but the 

 fifth had only a wing broken. He ran down to the shore to send 

 his dog to retrieve them, while James the rabbit-catcher sat down 

 upon a high rock to watch. Four were gathered without difficulty, 



