417 
not in this country produce its young till late in the autumn, 
and is the only species of Seal in which this exceptional habit 
has been observed ; its first coat, which is white, is not shed 
for some Aveeks. Till this change takes place the young Seal 
does not enter the Avater, and should it hy accident bo 
driven from its resting-place, it probably perishes. It thus 
happens that the sand banks of the great estuary knoAATi as the 
"W^ush, Avhich are submerged by every tide, although forming 
excellent nurseries for the young of the Common Seal, many of 
Avhich are annually born there, are utterly unsuited to the Grey Seal 
for a like purpose ; and it seems probable that the death of the 
little one, Avhoso skin is on the table, Avas caused through its being 
deposited by its mother on a sand bank, from Avhich it Avas swept 
to destruction by the rising tide. From the season of the year 
in Avhich this little one Avas produced, its Avhite coat, and its 
untimely end (if my conjecture as to the cause be correct), there 
ajipears to me to bo no doubt that it is the young of the Grey Seal. 
The distinguishing characteristics of the old one, are its great size, 
lierco disposition, the colour of its pelage (although from the 
extreme variation to Avhich the species is subject, this alone is by 
no means a safe guide), and the great length of the claws of the 
fore flippers. Even although avo have not the evidence of the 
skull, Avhich Avould have been perfectly conclusive, I think there 
need not be the slightest hesitation in claiming the Grey Seal as a 
straggler to the Norfolk coast. 
The Grey Seal inhabits the North Atlantic, extending from 
Nova Scotia eastAvard to the British Isles, Denmark, and the Baltic 
Sea ; its northern range extending to Southern Greenland, Iceland, 
and the Norwegian coast as high as latitude 70’ N., folloAving very 
closely Humboldt’s isotherm of 30’, but it is not found in any of 
the islands of the Arctic seas. In the British seas this species is 
found on the eastern coast of Ireland, and is said to have been met 
Avith in the Isle of Wight and Plymouth (Mr. Parfitt, however, 
does not include it in his list of the Mammalia of Devon), from 
the coast of CornAvall, northward to the Isle of Man, the Hebrides 
and Orkneys, and on the east coast as Ioav as the Earn Islands, and, 
AVO may noAv add, the Wash betAveen the counties of Lincolnshire 
and Norfolk. On the Hebrides it seems formerly to hav’^e been 
very abundant, and Martin, in his ‘Description of the Western 
