290 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



Individuals of this species are often extremely abun- 

 dant on the shores of Newfoundland, where hundreds 

 of thousands of them are annually killed in the spring. 

 It has been often said to visit England, and it is certain 

 that one was captured in Morecambe Bay in 1874. 



At breeding time the females take up their stations on 

 the ice very near each other, sometimes not a yard apart. 

 The males accompany them, but mostly remain in the 

 water, into which element the young, as before said, 

 do not seem to enter voluntarily. 



Professor Jukes* tells us of a young one which was 

 taken alive and became a very gentle and interesting pet. 

 " He lay very quiet on deck, opening and closing his 

 curious nostrils — and occasionally lifting his fine lustrous 

 eyes. On being patted on the head he drew it in till his 

 face was perpendicular with his body, knitted his brows 

 and closed his eyes and nostrils, thereby assuming a very 

 comical expression of countenance. Although he was 

 fierce when teased, and attempted to bite and scratch, he 

 immediately became quiet on being stroked and petted." 



The ringed seal is an Arctic species, which descends 

 southwards in both hemispheres, and has been captured 

 in England on the coast of Norfolk. 



The Caspian seal, which inhabits the Caspian and the 

 Aral Seas, seems to be very nearly related to the ringed 

 seal, as also does the species known as the Siberian seal, 

 which inhabits the lakes of Laikal and Or ok. 



The bearded seal, or, as it is called in England, the 

 great seal, seems first to have been distinctly recognised 

 in 1743, when one was shown at Charing Cross. 

 It extends from the Arctic Seas downwards to both 

 the North Atlantic and the North Pacific. It has a 

 curious habit of turning a somersault when about to 

 * See " Excursion in Newfoundland," vol. i. 



