GREENLAND SEAL. 253 



Greenland Seal in the list of British Mammals; bnt, 

 although \vc arc unable to point out any undoubted 

 native specimens in our Museums, the evidence in favour 

 of its occasional occurrence seems too strong to be disre- 

 garded. In the first edition of this work two skulls are 

 mentioned of Seals killed in the Severn, which were 

 exhibited at a meeting of the British Association at 

 Bristol in 1836 by our friend Dr. Riley, and which were 

 at first referred by Prof. Nilsson to Phuca annellata 

 {Ph. hispida), but were afterwards determined, both by 

 that gentleman and by the author, to belong to the present 

 species. Doubts have since been thrown on this identi- 

 fication by Mr. Ball, in his paper on Seals in the seventh 

 volume of the " Transactions of the Royal Irish Aca- 

 demy," in which he considers that these skulls belonged 

 neither to Pli. annellata nor to Ph. grocnlandica, and that 

 their species had yet to be determined. We are not 

 aware where these specimens now are ; but a careful 

 comparison of the somewhat rude figure of one of them 

 in Mr. Ball's lithographic sketches of Seals in our 

 possession, seems to confirm our former decision ; the 

 distinctly transverse hinder margin of the palate is very 

 marked, and in the meantime we must retain the belief 

 that the skull in question was that of a young example 

 of Ph. (jratnlandica. Our further evidence as to visits of 

 the Harp Seal to our coasts is not very satisfactory. A 

 young Seal taken in the Firth of Forth is doubtfully 

 referred to this species by the late ]\Ir. Macgillivray, as 

 is one caught in the Thames in 1858 by Dr. Gray, but 

 in neither case were the skulls observed. Mr. 11. D. 

 Graham, in a communication printed in the first volume 

 of tlie " Proceedings of the Natural History Society of 

 Glasgow," describes three large Seals seen by him in the 

 Island of .hira which iiad all llic markings characteristic 



