134 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



SEALS IN KILL ALA BAY AND THE MOY ESTUAEY, 



CO. MAYO. 



By Kobekt Warren. 



In the ' Field ' of March 4th, Mr. Hubert Donnison gives a 

 very interesting account of the Seals frequenting the sand- 

 banks of the Wash, on the Norfolk coast ; while Mr. G. Ellis 

 gives the weight of a female Grey Seal (heavy with young), shot 

 by him in Orkney. It is very remarkable to hear of Seals 

 living in such large numbers on the Wash, quite equalling, 

 if not outnumbering, those in the most favoured localities in 

 Scotland and the Scottish Isles, the headquarters of the Seals in 

 Great Britain. As a few rough notes on the Seals and their 

 habits, frequenting Killala Bay and the estuary of the Moy, 

 may be of some little interest to naturalists and sportsmen, I 

 venture to give them. 



We have both the Grey and Common Seals, the former being 

 much the more numerous, the habits of both species being very 

 similar to those as given by Mr. Donnison as haunting the 

 sand-banks of the Wash. 



The Moy Estuary is separated from Killala Bay by the island 

 of Bartragh, which is long and narrow, stretching for three miles 

 quite across the inner part of the bay, from the Sligo to the 

 Mayo side ; the Kiver Moy running out to the bay by a narrow 

 channel at the eastern end, while at the western end the Moyne 

 channel separates the island from the Mayo side near Killala. 

 The estuary flats inside the island are a wide expanse of hard 

 sand, with a few small islands scattered about it, but quite away 

 from the Seal haunt, which is on the banks of the Moyne 

 channel, to which the Seals resort to rest at low water. Their 

 favourite resting ground is a bend in the channel, where they 

 assemble on a point of sand, from which they can have a good 

 view on both sides both up and down the channel, so that no 



