ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 15 



loudly lamenting that, having lost her sea-dress, she 

 must remain for ever on the earth. Having provided 

 her with suitable habiliments, he wooed and won her for 

 his wife ; and many a year rolled rapidly away, a witness 

 of their united affection and peaceable contentment. 

 But " the course of true love never did run smooth ;" 

 and it came to pass that on one fine morning the fair 

 merlady discovered her long-lost garb, and, before her 

 bewildered husband could essay to prevent her, had 

 gained the margin of the boiling ocean, and, gracefully 

 waving her pendant fin, bounded into the surge with 

 a farewell whisk of her tail, and rejoined her seal- 

 husband in the depths below. 



The old seals come into the shallows at this time of 

 year for the purpose of calving : and the young seals, 

 closely following the mother in the open sea, exube- 

 rant and free, and affording full scope for their curious 

 evolutions and playful gambols, offer to the lover of 

 young animals a very attractive domestic episode. 

 They are often caught and made great pets of by their 

 captors, and the following anecdote offers a striking 

 instance of their singular affection and attachment : 



A poor fisherman's family had long possessed one 

 of these animals, which they had brought up from 

 infancy, and which, by its lamb-like innocence and 

 amusing antics, afforded an unceasing source of grati- 

 fication and pleasure. Sickness at last invaded their 

 quiet home, and one of the youthful members of the 



