PHOCIDAY 603 
winter and north in summer. They are usually harmless, timid, 
inoffensive animals, though, being polygamous, the old males often 
fight desperately with each other, their skins being frequently 
found covered with wounds and scars. They are greatly attached 
to their young, and remarkably docile and easily trained when in 
captivity ; indeed, although there would seem little in the structure 
or habits of the Seal to fit it by nature to be a companion of man, 
yet there is perhaps no wild animal which attaches itself so readily 
to the person who takes care of and feeds it. Seals appear to 
have much curiosity, and it is a very old and apparently well- 
Pia. 277,—The Common Seal (Phoee vituline). 
attested observation that they are strongly attracted by musical 
sounds. Their sense of smell is very acute, and their voice varies 
from a harsh bark or grunt to a plaintive bleat. Seals feed chiefly 
on fish, of which they consume enormous quantities ; some, how- 
ever, subsist largely on crustaceans, especially species of Giannis, 
which swarm in the northern seas, also on molluscs, echinoderms, 
and even occasionally sea-birds, which they seize when swimming 
or floating on the water. 
Although the true Seals do not possess the beautiful under fur 
(‘‘seal-skin” of the furriers) which makes the skin of the Nea-Bears 
so precious, yet their hides are still sufficiently valuable as articles 
of commerce, together with the oil yielded by their fat, to subject 
them to a devastating persecution, by which their numbers are 
being continually diminished. 
