THE OCEAN MAMMALS 371 



they are easily decoyed in the manner above described. 

 Once, however, the biter got bitten. For one of our Eskimo, 

 who had hidden himself in a sealskin bag and was lying on 

 a favourite basking rock flapping his legs, was mistaken for 

 a seal by a passer-by on the shore, who promptly sent a 

 bullet through him. 



The large, gentle eye makes the seal's appearance ex- 

 ceedingly attractive, and those inclined to be sentimental 

 have found in him a great scope for their effusions. As 

 a matter of fact, he eats his prey alive. He will take a bit 

 out of a fish, and leave the rest to struggle away and die 

 slowly. They are fierce fighters, and will catch and eat 

 birds swimming on the surface of the water. One was seen 

 devouring a salmon alive. The seal swallowed him by 

 inches, swimming a mile while the struggle lasted. It 

 seemed an open question whether he would succeed or not. 

 Another seal was seen to capture a gull on the water, but 

 the persistent harrying he got from the rest of the birds 

 persuaded him to let the wounded victim go. 



The ringed seal, Phoca hispida, so dearly loved of Green- 

 landers, and so prized by their people for clothing, is rare 

 in Labrador, only a few specimens being taken, and those 

 in the extreme north. 



Nor does the hooded (or hood) seal (Cystophora cristata) 

 come much to the shore. Indeed, the ringed seal is a 

 glacial seal, and the hood a pelagic and glacial seal. The 

 hoods breed in the ice off our shores in March, a little later 

 than the harps, and their baby, dark on the back, is called 

 a " blue-coat." The old ones are slightly larger than the 

 harps, and the skin is covered with black patches. The 

 strange bag on the head, which is inflated from the nose, 



