42 E. BROWN ON THE SEALS OF GREENLAND. 



suspect that he has erred through his informants mistaking this 

 for Callocephalus vitulinus. No doubt Dr. Maltngren seems to 

 think that the latter species is not got in Spitzbergen — an opinion 

 I have ventured to contest in a former paper. 



It is also sometimes called '* the Freshwater Seal," on account 

 of its following the Salmon high up rivers.* 



Remarks, S^c. — Any laboured account of a Seal so long and so 

 familiarly known would obviously be out of place in these short 

 notes; I question, however, if all the accounts we posses regard- 

 ing the Seal under the designation of " Phoca vitulina " really 

 refer to this species, and not to Pagotnys fcetidus and others. | 

 It will, I think, be found that in the western and northern islands 

 of Scotland several species, not hitherto supposed to be regular 

 members of the British fauna, exist, known under the popular 

 names of Selkie, Selach, Sea-cat, &c.J I do not think I can 

 say anything in regard to its habits further than what is 

 already contained in various works on Mammalia, &c., viz. : — 

 Bingley, British Quadrupeds, p. 57 ; Bell, History of British 

 Quadrupeds, 2nd ed., p. 240 ; Hamilton, Amphibious Carnivora 

 (Nat. Lib.), p. 127 ; James Wilson, in Mag. Zool. and Bot, Vol. I., 

 p. 239 ; Edmonston, View of Zetland, Vol. II., p. 293, and Mem. 

 Wern. Soc, Vol. VII. ; Martin, Western Islands, p. 62 ; M'Gil- 

 livray, British Quadrupeds (Nat. Lib.), Vol. XIIL, p. 199; Nils- 

 son, Skandinaviske Fauna, I., p. 276 ; Fabricius, Naturhistoriske 

 Selskabets Skrifter, L, Band II., p. 98 ; (Edmann, Vet. Akad. 

 Handl., 1784, p. 84 ; Rosted, Norske Vidensk. Nye Skrivter, IL, 

 p. 185 (good description); CneifF, "Berattelse om Skalfanget i 

 CEsterboUen," in Vet. Akad. Handl., 1759, p. 179, r. 8 (on the 

 hunt) ; Holmers, Anteckningar om sattet att skjuta och fanga 

 Skalar, (S:c. (Stockholm, 1828), (hunt, he, fide Nilss.) ; Ball, 

 Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, VIII., and Sketches 

 of British Seals; Bartlett, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1871, p. 701 (where, 

 through an error of identification, it is called Ph. foetida) ; 

 Gaimard, Voyage en Islande, &c. 



Procreation and Young. — On the coast of Greenland it is said 

 to produce its young in the month of June, but the time seems 

 to vary according to season and place. In the Western Isles of 

 Scotland at least it is born pure white, with curly hair, like the 

 young of Pagomys fcetidus, but within three days of its birth it 

 begins to take dark colour on the snout and the tips of the flippers 

 {fide Capt. McDonald). 



* I have known a Seal (probably Halicyon richardsi, Gray) to be killed at 

 the Dalles of the Columbia Elver in Oregon, upwards of 200 miles from the 

 Pacific. It was doubtless in pursuit of Salmon. Dog River, a tributary of 

 the Columbia, takes its name from a dog-like animal, probably a Seal, being 

 seen in the lake whence the stream rises. 



t In the Appendix to Parry's " Voyage," is a notice of a Seal said to be 

 " Phoca vitulina.'" It is the young (in second coat) of Pagophilus groenlan- 

 dicus, which has often been mistaken for this Seal. It can be known by its 

 having the second toe of the fore flippers the longest, while, independently of 

 other characters, C. vitulina has the first toe the longest. 



t "On the Seals of the Outer Hebrides," Fergusson, in McGillivray's 

 '• Edin. Journ. Nat. and Phys. Sc," ii., p. 58. 



