G SEALS OF THE SHETLAND ISLANDS. 



obliged, as I have often seen, to make a slight turn in the 

 manner of a shark. The iris is dark brown. The eyes are 

 placed a little more obliquely towards the nose than in the 

 common seal, and this gives the countenance, when irri- 

 tated, a more sinister and wild expression. The blubber 

 is of a yellowish colour. His motions in the water are less 

 lively and inquisitive than those of the female, but he is 

 more cautious, and, unless at the breeding season, he is 

 more rarely seen ; he swims with his nose on a level with the 

 water and the back of his head elevated ; the female with 

 the whole head elevated like the vitulina. 



Female. — Of this a very elegant and tolerably accurate 

 figure is given in Professor Bell's late work on British 

 Quadrupeds. She differs from the male in being shorter, 

 but proportionally thicker ; the head smaller, the muzzle 

 thinner, and the nose less arched ; the skin is of a paler co- 

 lour, more or less patched with darkish blue, and becomes 

 lighter with age. In two aged individuals of different sexes, 

 the one appears a pale grey and the other black ; the muzzle 

 of the female is thinner than that of the male. The young 

 of both sexes, the first year, are similar in colour to the je- 

 rnale, the snout of the male being from the first darker. This 

 species brings forth towards the end of September or first of 

 October, sometimes on distant skerries, as the Soolaskerry to 

 the west of Orkney, or the Vee skerries on the west of Shet- 

 land ; but the general habit is in caves, called here Hellyers, 

 where the rocks open to the sea, at the end of which are 

 .small beaches where the young remain and are suckled for 

 about six wee^s before they are taken to the water. The 

 female, as I have before observed, never produces more than 

 one at a birth, which at that period is covered with a fine 

 vellowish- white hair, which is completely cast off a few days 

 before forsaking the land, and if before this moulting period 



