Quadrupeds, 1 1 



" ' My father has made several attempts to rear and tame this seal, but in vain. 

 It appears scarcely susceptible of domestication, and the development of its 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 Phoca variegata (vitulina) of less than four feet. The head 

 and general form of Halichaerus are long in proportion to its rotundity, comparatively 

 with other seals. 



" ' On examining the remains of Donovan's Ph. barbata, now in the British Mu- 

 seum, I recognised in it an ill-put-up specimen of our HalicliEerus ; and I presume 

 the stuffer has endeavoured to make the specimen correspond with the description of 

 Ph. barbata, by unduly plumping up the snout and shortening the thumbs, which are 

 evidently pushed in by the wires intended to support the paws. Sir Everard Home 

 figured, in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' of 1822, a cranium from a drawing be- 

 longing to Mr. Hunter, of 'the skull of the great seal deposited in the British Museum 

 from the South Seas.' I suspect that there is some mistake in the reference of the 

 letter-press to the figure ; and the reference in Griffith's Cuvier seems also incorrect. 

 Could the skull from which the figure is taken have belonged to Donovan's seal ? I 

 have a similar skull from a similar seal that I killed myself, and feel much inclined 

 to believe it did. 



" ' I find that the palatal foramina furnish a good character ; for while in Hali- 

 chaerus they open in or on the palatal bones, they in several species of Phoca open in 

 the maxillaries. This is a character of value, as it is not influenced by age. The 

 hairs of the whiskers in this species are flattened in one direction, and contracted at 

 regular intervals in the other ; so that when viewed in front they appear linear, when 

 seen sideways they are moniliform. Their colour varies from whitish horn colour to 

 blackish. 



'"It occurred to me several years since that I could kill seals by going to the 

 mouths of their caves, and striking them with a harpoon as they dived out. Acting 

 on this, in August 1829 I went to Howth properly equipped, and took a position at 

 the mouth of a cave, in which I could hear the inmates baying loudly like large dogs. 

 On making a noise from the boat, several seals passed out with great velocity, at the 

 depth of about eight feet : one I struck with an oar, and another with a harpoon, but 

 not effectually^ as it gave way after a short struggle. Learning from the failure, we 

 made ready for the next, which I could distinctly see at the bottom of the water, at- 

 tentively watching us, sometimes advancing and again retreating : it seemed scared 

 by the harpoons, which the friend who aided me and I held so deep in the water as 

 only to off'er it room to pass. After a considerable time so spent, we raised our wea- 

 pons a little, when it made a start to escape, but in vain, as both our harpoons struck 

 it, mine penetrating even to its heart. It twisted the shaft out of my hands and broke 

 it short oflT, though between two and three inches in diameter ; it then pulled our boat 

 out to sea, and when compelled to come to the surface, we fired two shots into it before 

 it ceased violent exertion. The quantity of blood was enormous, spreading to a great 

 extent on the surface of the water. I estimate the weight of the animal, though in 

 poor condition, to have been upwards of five hundred pounds ; its skeleton now mea- 

 sures seven feet two inches ; it was a very aged female, judging from the state of its 

 teeth, yet it appeared to be suckling young, as there was milk in its mammse.' "—p. 279. 



We have two examples of the squirrel tribe, the common squirrel 

 {Sciurus vulgaris) and the dormouse [Myoxus avellanarms), and eight 



