NOTES ON CORNISH MAMMALS. 415 
Bristol Channel. Its favourite haunt during the greater part of 
the year is the rocky bed of the streams that tumble down the 
steep sides of the Bodmin Moor plateau, though it is always well 
represented in the middle and lower reaches of the rivers as well, 
and there is probably not an unprotected watercourse or pond in 
the county that is not visited by this predacious animal. The 
Common Seal (Phoca vitulina, L.) occurs locally along the north 
coast from Marsland Mouth to Pendean. A few frequent the 
rocks at Cape Cornwall, and groups are occasionally noticed on 
the Brisons. It is often reported from the Land’s End round to 
the Logan Rock, and for the last three years Seals have been 
frequently observed a little to the west of Lamorna. Further 
east it is rarely seen on the south coast, and most of those 
reported from the English Channel are Otters. One, however, 
was seen at Black Head and two at Coverack in the autumn of 
last year ; the late Matthias Dunn saw them occasionally on the 
rocks near Gorran, where they reappeared for several weeks in 
the autumn of 1906; stragglers are at long intervals recorded 
from the neighbourhood of Polperro, and in 1861 one was killed 
in Whitsand Bay east. It evidently breeds in small numbers on 
the lonely shores of the Bristol Channel. Baby Seals have also 
been taken or seen on the beaches at Porth Chapel and Porth- 
curnow, and have been reported from Porthgwarra, and from the 
northern extremity of Whitsand Bay west. This species is com- 
pletely replaced at Scilly by the Grey Seal, as Dorrien-Smith 
knows of only one specimen being with certainty identified there 
during the last forty years. The Grey Seal (Halicherus gryphus, 
Fab.) has its headquarters on the Isles of Scilly, where it is 
remarkably common, especially among the western islands, 
Roseveare, Rosevean, and Gorregan. On the writer’s first visit 
to these rocky islets one fine day in May he was able, with the aid 
of a glass, to count seventeen at one time on Rosevean and Gorre- 
ganalone. The heaviest killed by Dorrien-Smith weighed 672 lb. 
Adult specimens have been seen on the mainland coast at Bos- 
castle, at Padstow, at Porth Island, Newquay, the lastin September, 
1907, at Zennor and near Pendean. It has also been reported 
from the Brisons, from Tol-pedn-penwith, and from near St. Loy. 
White pups of the Grey Seal have been taken several times on 
the mainland, but Millais thinks it improbable they breed there. 
