THE COMMON SEAL 
about extraneous matters, so his place must be taken by another that 
is more awake and fresher from the sea." 
Graceful and swift in his natural element the Seal is awkward when 
ashore, though capable of jerking his body forward at some speed if 
alarmed and making for the water. Seals are naturally inquisitive and 
attracted by any unusual sound, and are even credited with a love of 
music. 
THE RINGED SEAL. 
Phoca kispida, Schreber. 
Plate i$. 
This small Arctic Seal, the " Floe-rat " of the Seal hunters, usually 
measures about 4^ feet from nose to tip of tail. 
The colour of the adult is dusky grey or brown above, curiously 
marked with rings and irregular figures of yellowish white, the centres 
of which are dark, the space round the eyes is dusky, the under parts 
huffish white. 
The Ringed Seal penetrates far north among the ice of the circumpolar 
regions and has been obtained up to or beyond lat. 82°. It is common 
on the coasts of Greenland, Spitzbergen, Nova Zembla, North Iceland, 
and Northern Europe, while occasional stragglers reach the British coasts. 
The first recorded specimen occurred on the Norfolk coast in 1846; 
this was purchased in the fish market of Norwich by Mr. J. H. Gurney 
and later identified by Professor Flower. Mr. Millais mentions two 
other examples, one killed at Collieston, Aberdeenshire, in August 1897, 
and a second taken in the salmon nets in Aberdeen Bay during the 
summer of 1901. 
59 
