THE ZOOLOGIST. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



MAMMALIA. 



CARNIVORA. 



The Grey Seal on the Coast of Sussex.— Hearing, on June 5th, that 

 a Seal had been shot at Littlehampton, I proceeded to make enquiries, and; 

 if possible, identify the species. I was informed that it had been skinned, 

 that it was between five and six feet in length, and weighed ninety-five 

 pounds. The large size pointed to the conclusion that it might be the 

 Grey Seal (Halicharus gryphus), a very rare visitor to the south coast, and, 

 so far as I am aware, the first instance of its occurrence in these parts. 

 Being, therefore, desirous of obtaining the skull as a means of identification, 

 I asked what had become of it, and was informed that it had been " thrown 

 into the river." Offering a reward, I left word that in the event of its being 

 recovered, as I suggested it possibly might be at low tide, it should be 

 brought to me. This was done, and I find that it corresponds in all 

 essential particulars, as regards dentition, flattened head, &c, with the 

 illustrations of the skull of the Grey Seal in the second edition of Prof. 

 Bell's 'British Quadrupeds'; also teeth in the upper jaw, plain, smooth, 

 and slightly curved, and not serrated, or placed obliquely and close together, 

 as is the case in the Common Seal. I would also observe that in the speci- 

 men I have imperfectly endeavoured to describe, the two oblique orifices in 

 the palate are placed near the canine teeth (see Bell, p. 268) ; whereas in 

 the Common Seal (Phoca vitulina) they occur much farther back, and are 

 longer in form (see Bell, p. 246). In ' The Zoologist' for 1897, I reported 

 the appearance of the Common Seal in the Arun for the first time ; I have 

 now the pleasure of recording the capture in this district of the much rarer 

 animal. — Percy E. Coombe (Surrey House, Arundel). 



AVES. 

 Thrush's Nest piled up with Ivy-berries.— By some accident the 

 April number of ' The Zoologist ' never reached me, and I have only lately 

 seen Mr. Stanley Lewis's note in that issue (ante, p. 181). In May I 

 received from Pembrokeshire a nest of the Song-Thrush, the sides of which 

 were thickly piled up with berries which had originally (i. e. at the end of 

 February) been of a beautiful ruddy colour ; some of them still show faint 



