66 MAMMALS. 



are better and darker than those that frequent more inland 

 situations. 



Otters are said to breed twice a year in Orkney, in spring 

 and autumn, and to bring forth from two to five young. 



Very few otter-skins ever appeared among the exports from 

 Orkney. In 1804 there were three, and in 1805 there were nine. 



Sub-order PINNIPEDIA. 

 Family TRIOHECHID^. 



Trichechus rosmarus, L. Walrus. 



Although we might reasonably presume that the Walrus was of 

 considerably more frequent occurrence in former years, when 

 the animals themselves were abundant in their more natural 

 habitat, we seem to have no records to prove this. The first 

 mentioned by Baikie and Heddle was killed in Eday in 1825, 

 and another is reported to have been seen in Hoy Sound in 1827. 

 Professor Heddle of St. Andrews told Harvie-Brown that he 

 himself saw an adult and young Walrus in 1849 or 1850 off the 

 coast of the parish of Walls : and in a copy of Baikie and Heddle 

 containing some MS. notes by one of the authors R. Heddle 

 which we have lately had the pleasure of examining, there is 

 this statement : "that a Walrus was seen off Eday in 1855, and 

 (another) in the Pentland Firth off Waas, 1 in 1856." 



In an extract from an article in Hardwicke's Science Gossip 

 on the Seals and Whales of the British Isles, Dr. Brown states 

 that two Walruses were seen in 1857, one in Orkney and the 

 other in Shetland. 



Mr. Moodie-Heddle tells us that there is an instance of a 

 Walrus occurring at Longhope, not mentioned by Baikie and 

 Heddle. " In this case it annoyed people going to church by 

 putting its tusks over the gunwale of the boat ! ! I saw one just 

 outside the surf during a westerly gale about 1863-4, at Hawick, 

 near Longhope. The tusks were quite visible, but not very large." 



" Whale-ships have several times come into Longhope of 

 recent years, with young Walruses on board." 



It seems to us that this last sentence may account for one 

 1 Waas = Walls. 



