40 
CETACEA. 
Mr. Selby that the common seal ( Phoca vitulino ) is now scarce at the 
Fern Islands, — the grey seal ( Halichcerus Gryphus ) being the species 
most numerous there. The latter animal is that which he formerly con- 
sidered the Phoca barbata. He stated that they prey on female Lump- 
Suckers, rejecting the skins, and that the surface of the water exhibits the 
oil which has escaped from the fish. (See Richardson’s Faun. Bor. Amer. 
on this subject.) 
Mr. George Ransom of Ipswich informed me by letter dated 3rd 
December, 1851, that a specimen of the grey seal weighing 770 lbs. was 
lately captured on the Fern Islands off the Northumberland coast by Mr. 
Robert Pattison of Bedford, and is the largest he ever saw. It was sent 
to the Ipswich Museum. One sent thence to the British Museum weigh- 
ed 742 lbs. 
On 30th April, 1851, Mr. Robert Warren, jun., mentioned his having 
lately shot a young seal on the coast of Mayo. It measured four feet 
from the nose to the extremities of the hinder feet, and weighed 70 lbs. 
The blubber was about an inch thick, and when melted produced nine 
bottles of oil, — six of them as clear as any that could be bought. He 
added : — “ Seals are pretty numerous about the bay [Killala], and at low 
water they frequent a sand-bank opposite to Killala. On a fine day from 
twenty to thirty may be seen on it basking in the sun. They always keep 
close to the water, and on the least alarm scramble into it with astonish- 
ing speed. They are of various shades of colour ; black, grey, reddish- 
brown, and fawn. A few days ago I saw two of a beautiful light fawn 
colour approaching white.” Mr. Robert Taylor, who visited the same 
locality in May, 1851, supplied me with the following note: — “On the 
22nd I saw twenty- three together on the coast about Bartra Island, Killala 
Bay, and going from the Island to Kilcummin Head on the 24th we saw 
upwards of a dozen. They are very wary, and it is almost impossible to 
get a shot at them. Some are very large, fully twice the size of the last 
shot one, which weighed one hundredweight three quarters and twenty- 
one pounds.” 
In Dr. Ball’s paper already quoted he expressed his opinion, that in 
addition to the two species of seal which I have noticed there is at least 
one other on the coasts of Ireland, but he had not been able to obtain 
specimens. 
Dr. Ball informs us that from The circumstance of a specimen of the 
Phoca cristata having been captured in the Orwell River at Ipswich in 
1847, as noticed by Dr. W. B. Clarke of Ipswich in the Annals of 
Natural History, he is of opinion that the Irish seals above referred to 
were of that species, and that the seal seen by Captain MTlree, and to 
which he referred in his paper above alluded to, was clearly of that 
species. 
'i 
CETACEA. 
The Common Dolphin, Delphinus Belpliis, Linn., 
Is found on the coast from north to south of at least the more easterly 
half of the island. — I have not heard of its occurrence on the western 
coast. Templeton notices it as common, alluding, it may be presumed, to 
the north-east coast : — heads of this species, without labels indicating lo- 
calities attached to them, are in the Belfast Museum, some of which are 
