12 



SEALS AND WHALES OF TLLE BRLTLSH SEAS. 



common, and on the Cornish, and some few otlier favoured locahties of the 

 Enghsh coast it is still well known ; on other parts of our shores it is 

 decidedly rare. In the great estuary between the Norfolk and Lmcoln- 

 shire coasts, called the "Wash," this species frequents the sand-banks left 

 dry at low water, and, doubtless, many young ones are produced there 

 annually. At birth, which takes place about the month of June, the young 

 Seal is covered with a coat of white woolly hair, which is shed in parturition, 

 or shortly after, and the young one takes to the water when only a few hours 

 old. Mr. Bartletti gives' an account of the birth of a young one (at the time 



Fig. 2. Skeleton of Seal. 



believed to be Ph. hispida) in the Zoological Gardens,* and states that it 

 completely divested itself of its coat of fur and hair in a few minutes, and 

 was swimming and diving about within three hours of its birth ; its mother 

 turned on her side to let it suck, and its voice was a low, soft " ba." The 

 first coat is not shed so quickly in some species, nor do they all take to the 

 water at so early an age ; as, for example, Ph. grcciilaiuiica, which is two or 

 three weeks before it leaves the ice. 



Proc. Zool. Soc, iS68, p. 402. 



