THE ZooLocist—SEPTEMBER, 1872. $203 
Notes from the Lincolnshire Coast and North Sea. 
By Joun CorpEaux, Esq. 
Juty, 1872. 
Seal.—The seal (Phoca vitulina) is not uncommon on that part 
of the Lincolnshire coast adjoining the Wash. This immense 
estuary, lying between Lincolnshire and Norfolk, is in great part 
occupied with large and dangerous sand-banks, intersected by 
deep but narrow channels. At ebb the sands are uncovered; and 
at these times, on hot days, numbers of seals may be found basking 
and sunning themselves on the hot sands, or rolling and wallowing 
in the shallow water along the bank. Sometimes a herd of fifteen 
or twenty of these interesting creatures will collect on some 
favourite sand-spit: their chief haunts are the Long-sand, near 
the centre of the Wash; the Knock, along the Lincoln coast; 
and the Dog’s-head sand, near the entrance to Boston Deeps. 
In the first week of July, when sailing down the Deeps along 
the edge of the Knock, we saw several seals: some on the 
bank; others with their bodies bent like a bow, the head 
and hind feet only out of the water. They varied greatly in 
size, also in colour, hardly any two being marked alike: one 
had the front of the head and face dark coloured, wearing the 
colour like a mask; in others the upper parts were light gray ; 
others looked dark above and light below; and some dark 
altogether. Our pilot and sailing-master, who knows every hole 
and corner of these waters, says that for many years he has seen 
on the Long-sand an immense gray seal, far larger than any of the 
others, but for the last two or three years had missed him: the 
young have occasionally been taken. In one instance a fisherman, 
who was passing down the Deeps, found a cub fast asleep; he 
succeeded in capturing it as he ran past by placing a small hand- 
net or dredge under it as it lay on the surface of the sea; the old 
seal was swimming close to the place at the time. The female has 
one young one in the year; and as these banks are covered at flood, 
the cub, when born, must make an early acquaintance with the 
water. In most of the Phocide the young one is at first covered 
with a sort of wool, the second or hairy dress being gradually 
acquired ; and until this is the case it does not go into the water. 
This, however, does not appear to be the case with the common 
