COMMON SEAL, 245 



The docility of this animal is no new discovery, the 

 ancients were well acquainted with this trait in its 

 character, and Pliny in particular has the following 

 passage : — " Accipiunt disciplinam, voceque pariter et 

 visu populo salutant, incondite fremitu : nomine vocati 

 respondent." 



The food of this species consists entirely of various 

 fish; Mr. Wilson observes that it is especially fond of 

 flounders, which indeed form its principal food in the 

 Hebrides. It is also a great foe of the salmon, which it 

 follows up rivers to a considerable distance. 



The Common Seal pairs in September, and a single 

 young one — or sometimes two — is born about the month 

 of June, An account of the birth of a young Common 

 Seal in the Zoological Society's Gardens is given by Mr. 

 Bartlett in the " Proceedings " for 1868 under the name 

 of Ph. fcetida, the parents having at first been wrongly 

 identified {Cf. P. Z. S., 1871, p. 701). The cub was at 

 first clad in a loose coat of outer fur and hair, but in a 

 few minutes after birth it completely divested itself of 

 this covering, which formed a sort of mat on which it 

 lay for the first hour or so. It would appear that in 

 Ph. vitulina this woolly coat is always shed either before 

 birth or immediately after ; in some species it is retained 

 much longer. Mr. Bartlett adds that this young Seal was 

 swimming and diving within three hours of its birth, that 

 it had a single call-note — a low soft ha — and that its 

 mother turned on her side to suckle it. 



The skin and oil of the Seal are valuable, and the flesh 

 was formerly much appreciated, especially during the 

 fasts of the Roman Catholic Church, when it was regarded 

 as flsh. In Orkney the limbs used to be cured as hams, 

 and in Greenland this species is especially valued as afiTord- 

 ing the best of all " Scal-bcof." 



