39 



the male is brownish-black, fading into yellowish on the abdominal 

 parts ; the young are much lighter in hue, which assumes a greenish 

 cast. The females are similarly coloured, but the underneath portion 

 is greyish. 



This species differs from the precedmg ones, in having the central 

 finger the longest, and the outer and inner ones the shortest. . 



Inhabits the Northern Seas, and occasionally found on the Scottish 

 and Northern Coasts of England. 



Genus Halichceeus,' NUsson. 

 Incisors 2^5, canines n, molars, ^ rr 34. 



Canines moderate in size ; molars Conical ; upper ones simple ; lower 

 ones slightly lobed ; the two posterior ones on each side of the upper 

 jaw, and the posterior one of the lower, are double-rooted ; the remain- 

 ing ones with single roots : head very flat ; bones of the face strongly 

 developed : brain comparatively very small ; muzzle simple, broad, 

 roundedj truncated ; whiskers notched at their edges ; claws conical, 

 elongated, sharp. 



Habits very moderately gregarious ; scarcely susceptible of domesti- 

 cation. 



Haiichceeus' gexptjb,^ O. Fabricius. The Q-rey Seal. 



Synonyms — Phoca grypus, O. Fabricius. 



Salichoerus grypus, Nilsson, Gray, B. M. C, 1866, p. 34. 

 Grey Seal, BeU, Brit : Quad. 



Dr. BaU, of Dublin, in his excellent account of the habits of the Grey 

 Seal, remarks that its colour varies so much from sex, age, season, Ac, 

 that it cannot be regarded of value as a specific character ; which 

 observation, as I have before pointed out, is equally applicable to many 

 species other than the animal he is describing. It is, however, readily 

 distinguished by the more permanent characters of a straight profile, 

 fierce aspect, and greater proportionate length of body to the rotundity. 



In its habits it is usually solitary, associating only in small parties, 

 and in its disposition devoid of that intelligence and mildness so 

 strikingly conspicuous in others of its kind. 



" My father," writes Dr. Ball, " has made several attempts to rear 

 and tame this seal, but in vain. It appears scarcely susceptible of 

 domestication, and the development of the skull seems to indicate as 

 much ; for the size of the brain of a specimen nearly eight feet long 

 did not exceed that of one of the common seal (Ph. vitulina) of less 

 than four." To which convincing fact, Mr. Bell, in the 1st volume 

 of his "British Quadrupeds," adds, " It is impossible not to be forcibly 

 struck with the contrast between the cerebral development of this 

 genus and that of the former, and the relation between the difference 



' &Ks, the sea, x""/""*) liog or pig. 

 2 -yjiviris, haviiig the beak hooked, 



