IKE COMMON SEAL. 183 



ing sometimes grey, sometimes bi^own or blackish, 

 and sometimes even spotted with white or yellow *. 



Their dens or habitations are in hollow rocks or 

 caverns near the sea, but out of the reach of the 

 tide. In the summer they will leave the wa- 

 ter, to bask or sleep in the sun on the large stones or 

 shivers of rocks ; and this is the opportunity that our 

 countrymen take of shooting them. If they chance 

 to escape, they hasten to the water, flinging stones 

 and dirt behind them as they scramble along ; at 

 the same time expressing their fears by mournful cries. 

 But if they are overtaken, they make a vigorous de- 

 fence with their feet and teeth -j-. 



Dr. Borlase says, that " that they are very swift 

 in their proper depth of water ; dive like a shot, and 

 in a trice rise at fifty j'-ards distance. A person of 

 the parish of Sennan, in Cornwall, saw, not long 

 since, a Seal in pursuit of a Mullet. The Seal 

 turned it to and fro, in deep water, as a Greyhound 

 does a Hare. The Mullet, at last, found it had no 

 way to escape but by running into shoal water : the 

 Seal pursued ; and the former, to get more surely 

 out of danger, threw itself on its side, by which 

 means it darted into shallower water than it could 

 have swam in with the depth of its paunch and fins^ 

 and thus escaped ^.." 



In swimming, the Seals always keep their head 

 above water. They sleep on the rocks ; and are ex- 

 tremely watchful, never sleeping long without mov- 



* Shaw, i. Q)\. t Pcnn. Brit. Zool. i. Ml. X Brit. Zool. i. 143. 

 N4 



