40 CETACEA. 



Mr. Selby that the common seal {Phoca vituUna) is now scarce at the 

 Fern Islands, — the grey seal [IlaUchccrus Gryplius) being the species 

 most numerous there. The latter animal is that which he formerly con- 

 sidered the Phoca harhata. He stated that they prey on female Lump- 

 Suckers, rejecting the skins, and that the surface of the water exhibits the 

 oil which has escaped from the fish. ^ (See Richardson's Faun. Bor. Amer. 

 on this subject.) 



Mr. George Ransom of Ipswich informed me by letter dated 3rd 

 December, 1851, that a specimen of the grey seal weighing 770 lbs. was 

 lately captured on the Fern Islands off the Northumberland coast by Mr. 

 Robert Pattison of Bedford, and is the largest he ever saw. It was sent 

 to the Ipswich Museum. One sent thence to the British Museum weigh- 

 ed 742 lbs. 



On 30th April, 1851, Mr. Robert WaiTen. jun., mentioned his having 

 lately shot a young seal on the coast of Mayo. It measured four feet 

 from the nose ta the extremities of the hinder feet, and weighed 70 lbs. 

 The blubber vras about an inch thick, and when melted produced nine 

 bottles of oil, — six of them as clear as any that could be bought. He 

 added : — " Seals are pretty numerous about the bay [Killala], and at low 

 water they frequent a sand-bank opposite to Killala. On a fine day from 

 twenty to thirty may be seen on it basking in the sun. They always keep 

 close to the water, and on the least alarm scramble into it with astonish- 

 ing speed. They are of various shades of colour ; black, grey, reddish- 

 brown, and fawn. A few days ago I saw two of a beautiful light fawn 

 colour approaching white." Mr. Robert Taylor, who visited the same 

 locality in May, 1851, supplied me with the following note: — "On the 

 22nd I saw twenty-three together on the coast about Bartra Island, Killala 

 Bay, and going from the Island to Kilcummin Head on the 24th we saw 

 upwards of a dozen. They are very wary, and it is almost impossible to 

 get a shot at them. Some are very large, fully twice the size of the last 

 shot one, which weighed one huncLredweight three quarters and twenty- 

 one pounds." 



In Dr. Ball's paper already quoted he expressed his opinion, that in 

 addition to the two species of seal which I have noticed there is at least 

 one other on the coasts of Ireland, but he had not been able to obtain 

 specimens. 



Dr. Ball informs us that from the circumstance of a specimen of the 

 Phoca cristata having been captured in the Orwell River at Ipswich in 

 1847, as noticed by Dr. W. B. Clarke of Ipswich in the Annals of 

 Natural History, he is of opinion that the Irish seals above referred to 

 were of that species, and that the seal seen by Captain M'lbee, and to 

 which he referred in his paper above alluded to, was clearly of that 

 species. 



CETACEA. 



The Common Dolphin, JDelphimis Del2)his, Linn., 



Is found on the coast from north to south of at least the mord easterly 

 half of the island.— I have not heard of its occurrence on the western 

 coast. Templeton notices it as common, alluding, it may be presumed, to 

 the north-east coast : — heads of this species, without labels indicating lo- 

 calities attached to them, are in the Belfast Museum, some of which are 



