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PLACENTATION OF THE SEALS. 289 
which at once pass into the water. Mr Bartiert points out that the young seal 
(P. vitulina?) born in the Zoological Gardens, June 8, 1868, a few minutes 
after its birth rolled and turned about, so as completely to divest itself 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 born it was 
very active, and within three hours afterwards was swimming and diving about 
in the water like an adult animal. This young seal was 32 inches long, and 
weighed 20 lbs. at its ‘birth. The young of Halicherus gryphus, on the other 
hand, according to WRIGHT, are born with yellowish-white woolly hairs, and 
cannot even swim ; the mother suckles them on the land for three weeks, and 
then, when they have changed their woolly hairs, they take to the water. 
Captain M‘Dona.p, who has for many years observed the habits of the Grey 
Seal (H. gryphus) on the west coast of Scotland, has kindly given me some 
interesting information about this animal. When just born, he says, the hair 
on the back and belly is yellowish-white, streaked with some faint grey stripes 
down the back. At the end of a week the hair is whiter than when newly born. 
When about fourteen days old the hair begins to fall off, and the first coat is 
entirely shed at the end of twenty-eight days. I saw a young male, nearly five 
months old, which Captain M‘Dona tp had alive on board the “ Vigilant,” to be 
slate-grey coloured on the back, with scattered black spots irregular both in size 
and shape. When the skin was wet the slate-grey tint was darker than when dry. 
The muzzle was a lighter shade of grey. The belly was whitish-yellow, with 
irregular black spots. The grey colour of the back and the whitish-yellow of 
_ the belly shaded into each other along the sides of the animal, where the black 
spots were more numerous than on the back or belly. 
The period of the year in which the seals produce their young varies very 
considerably in the different species. Cystophora cristata gives birth to its 
young in the month of February, though some writers say about the month of 
April; Phoca groenlandica about the end of March and the beginning ofApril; 
Phoca vitulina in the month of June; Halicherus gryphus again does not, 
as Captain M‘Donatp informs me, bring forth its young until the month of 
October. On October Ist, 1874, he landed on the Eastern Hysker, a rocky 
islet near Canna, and found four young grey seals which had just been born. 
On the 12th October he again landed and found fifteen young animals, all of 
which had been pupped since his former visit. He has never seen more than 
one pup to each female. The mother suckles its young about ten weeks, and, 
if not disturbed, the young animals do not take to the water until the mother 
ceases to give suck, when the males and females begin again to copulate. 
There appears to be one adult male to three or even more females. The foetus 
described in this memoir was therefore about three months from the completion 
of its term of intra-uterine life. The period of gestation is about nine months. 
