SEALS 



like an adult animal. It uttered a low soft hah, or single 

 call-note, and looked about after its mother and crawled 

 towards her when she came out of the water. The mother 

 would turn upon her side in order to let the young one 

 suck. The young seal was 32 in. long, and weighed 20 lbs. 

 at its birth. A notice written by me appeared in the 

 Zoological Society's Proceedings, June 1868, recording the 

 above facts : — 



notes upon the birth of a einged seal in the 

 society's gardens, by a. d. bartlett, super- 

 intendent OF THE society's GAEDENS. 



On May 23, 1868, the Society obtained from a 

 dealer in Liverpool four fine adult seals {Phoca fostida), 

 said to have been taken in Heligoland. I noticed that one 

 of them was of large size, and suspected that it was a 

 female in young. I therefore had her placed by herself in 

 an enclosure with a small shallow pond of water. Here 

 she soon became perfectly tame, and fed freely from the 

 hand of the keeper. We continued to notice the increase 

 of bulk, and the movements of the young one were quite 

 apparent. 



On Monday, June 8, she was very uneasy, and appeared 

 to me to be in considerable pain ; I therefore kept a con- 

 stant watch, and the man who had charge of her remained 

 with her all night. She continued in this state until about 

 twelve o'clock on Tuesday, at which time she produced the 

 young one. It was born near the edge of the water, and in 

 a few minutes after its birth, by rolling and turning about, 

 was completely divested of the outer covering of fur and 

 hair, which formed a complete mat, upon which the young 

 animal lay for the first hour or two after its birth. When 

 bom it was very active, and within three hours afterwards 



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