PHOCA BAKBATA DUBIA. 11 



another Great Seal, we should have another distinct animal 

 to be met with, and probably two, if we anticipated, as we 

 might from analogy, that the different sexes of such a 

 species would also differ considerably from each other. 



Now, we are given by authors to understand that such a 

 species frequents the coast of Shetland as elsewhere; but how, 

 then, does it happen that no one in Shetland has ever seen 

 or heard of any other species of seal frequenting these islands, 

 except the two I have described, which are perhaps more 

 familiarly and better known here than in any other country ? 

 All the three species are also said to inhabit the shores of 

 Iceland and the Faroe Isles. The Faroese know only the 

 Common Seal and our Haff-fish as permanent residents, 

 and the cristata and Grcenlandica as very rare visitants ; 

 and in two excursions I have made to these islands, I saw 

 often the two former of these, but no other. 



One of the most accurate naturalists that ever visited Ice- 

 land was Mohr, and he mentions only two species which he 

 fell in with, and these are the same as we have here. He 

 also states that the cristata and Grcenlandica occur there, 

 and are well known by the natives. He speaks, it is true, 

 of the P.fcetida of Fabricius, but he expressly says of it — 

 " Denne Art fik jeg hverken selv at see, ikke heller nogen 

 tydelig Efterretning om." 



How, then, are we to account for the notion of another 

 species of Great Seal ? Perhaps in this way — Fabricius 

 particularly, and other zoologists, having given currency to 

 the belief of its existence, and assigned it even " a local 

 habitation and a name," it was to be expected that observers 

 would be on the watch to verify the opinion, and getting 

 glimpses of the male Haff-fish, which is so very marked 

 in its difference from the female, it was natural to conclude 

 that here was the animal of which they were in search. 



