Selous: Observations on the Grey Seal. 359 
distance and the only very slight elevation of our heads above 
the irregular line of the rocks, behind which we crouched, 
make it, to my mind, highly improbable that either of the 
Seals should have sighted us, nor would they have been likely 
to show active alarm, even if they had. I had noticed several 
times that if these Seals saw anyone sufficiently close, or 
obstrusively outstanding, to make them apprehensive, they 
snapped themselves under water, so to speak, witha splash, but 
otherwise went down quite quietly, one may say lazily. This 
indication was never given by the male Seal as he swam up, 
nor by either of the pair as they swam away ; in each case, it 
seemed to me, quite at ease. Neither in the above incident, 
therefore, nor on any other occasion was I able to find any 
evidence of the male Grey Seal’s playing the part of sentinel to 
his family, as Heatherley thought it did. There was nothing 
that I saw, where this question might seem to arise, that was not 
amply accounted for by ordinary conjugal affection. The calf 
was often left for hours—once for ten hours—on the rocks, 
without either of the parents coming to that part of the shore 
indeed, they were not to be seen anywhere—and the male was 
often equally absent whilst the suckling was taking place. Inthe 
case of the Common Seal, I have more than once demonstrated 
the fact that any one of a group on the rocks that saw me 
would drop into the sea, leaving the others still lying there. 
Where, then, was the sentinel? and can it be supposed (as 
ic has been suggested) that any anima!—even a Seal—exer- 
cising discretion and judgment, would sometimes post sentinels 
and sometimes not ? 
Whilst the suckling was proceeding, Heatherley drew my 
attention to a rounded boss on the upper part of the body of 
the alma mater, a little below the chest, on the right side, which 
was the one uppermost and most exposed to view. He sug- 
gested that this might be a rudimentary teat. As to the 
physiological possibility, or otherwise, of this, I am not com- 
petent to express an opinion, but the supposition certainly 
seems to give a new significance to the endeavours, during the 
feeding time, of the calf to move upwards towards the head of 
the mother, and of the latter’s flicking of it down, again, to the 
right place, by quickly repeated gentle blows of that flapper at 
liberty—the upper one, that is to say, as she lies. On two of 
these occasions the calf was thus induced to continue sucking, 
his mouth being once actually guided to the teat, whilst on the 
third, when he persisted, the mother went off. 
I was left alone about 5 p.m. to spend the night in the shed, 
which I did, keeping absolutely quiet and closing up every 
aperture, even to the small ventilation holes, before hghting a 
candle to read by. I cannot, of course, say whether any seal, 
young or old, came out upon the rocks, in the night, whilst I 
1915 Nov. 1. 
