2 SEALS OF THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



here state, may have been anticipated. What I shall com- 

 municate is derived entirely from my own observations and 

 personal experience, fortified by those of intelligent indivi- 

 duals in Shetland, who have had ample opportunities of 

 acquiring accurate knowledge on the subject. 



There are only two species of Seal permanently resident 

 on the coasts of Shetland, and the distinctive characters of 

 these are very prominently marked. They are the Com- 

 mon or Small Seal, Phoca vitulina of Linnaeus ; and the 

 Great Seal, Phoca barbata of most authors, or P. gryphus 

 of others. 



Phoca vitulina, or Common Seal — in the dialect of Shet- 

 land, Tang-fish or Bay Seal — seems the most generally dif- 

 fused of all the Phocidae, and is the best known ; for this 

 reason, I shall be very general in its description. 



Male. — The length from the nose to the end of the tail 

 is nearly six feet ; the ground colour of the skin brownish- 

 grey, irregularly patched and dotted with black ; the head, 

 muzzle, and paws darkest ; the colour all over the body be- 

 comes deeper as the animal advances in age, but still distinct- 

 ly retains its speckled appearance ; the blubber is whitish. 

 The hair is partially or wholly cast every autumn; the face is 

 short and bluff', and the nose rather recurved than convex ; 

 the upper lip projects a little beyond the lower ; the eyes 

 are large, round and prominent ; the iris dark brown ; the 

 pupil after death is sometimes oval, more frequently circu- 

 lar, or one eye is in one of these conditions. This appear- 

 ance, which occurs also in the Great Seal, is therefore not 

 constant or distinctive, but is obviously owing to the pecu- 

 liar states of contraction or dilatation in which the pupil 

 happens to be at the moment of death. The female is not 

 quite so long in the body as the male, but thicker ; the co- 



