Crass I. SiH. A oD 
in the lower. Jt has two canine teeth above and 
below, and on each fide of the jaws five erinders ; 
the total thirty-four. 
The whole animal was covered with fhort hair, 
very clofely fet together: the color of that on the 
head and féet was dufky: on the body dufky, 
{potted irregularly with white: on the back the 
dufky color predominated; on the belly white: but 
feals vary greatly in their. marks and colors, and 
fome have been found* entirely white. One that 
was taken near Chefter, in May 1766, had on its 
firft capture, the body naked like the fkin of a por- 
pefe; and only the head and a fmall fpot beneath 
each fore leg, hairy: it was kept alive fome time; 
but before it died, hair began to grow over the 
whole body +. 
The feal is common on moft of the rocky fhores 
of Great Britain and Ireland, efpecially on the nor- 
thern coafts: in Wales it frequents the coafts of | 
Caernarvonfhire, and Anglefey. It preys entirely 
on fifh, and never molefts the fea fowl: for I 
have feen numbers of each floating on the waves, 
as if in company. Seals eat their prey beneath the 
water; and in cafe they are devouring any very 
oily fifh, the place is known by a certain fmoothnefs 
*In the Afbmolean Mufeum at Oxford, isa good picture of 
two white feals. | 
+ Vide The figure publifhed in the additional plates of the 
folio edition of this work, 
L 2 , of 
139 
