Phoca. 
MAMMALIA. FERA, 
n 
winter, its footsteps are traced in the snow to the springs of fresh-water which 
it visits — The fur of the otter is valuable, and forms an article of export in 
the northern isles. The animal, when taken young, is easily tamed, is docile, 
grateful, and will catch fish for its master. 
Gen. XV. PHOCA. Seal. — All the grinders nearly uniform 
in their appearance; six incisors above, and four below. 
Fur short. Fore-legs short, and inclosed in the skin ; hind- 
legs nearly coalesce with the body ; pelvis narrow. Sleeps 
on stones ; breeds in caves ; is easily killed by a blow on 
the nose. Might be domesticated with advantage. Yields 
oil.— The skin is made into leather. 
21. P. vitulina. Common seal. — Body about six feet in 
length ; colour various. 
Vitulus mar. Merr. Pin. 167 — Sih, Scot. p. 10 — Phoca, Ray^ Quad. 189. 
Lin. Syst. l.p. 56. 1 — Pen. Brit. Zool. 1. 137. — Flem. Phil. Zool. tab. 1. 
f. 3. Sea-calf, Soil ; S', Selch, Pouart, Cowie, Tangfish ; Moel- 
rhon ; G, Bon. — On all our shores and large estuaries. 
Seals are extremely watchful, and seldom remain long without raising their 
heads and looking around. They are expert divers, and can seldom be shot 
in the water. They prey on fish of all kinds, and in the estuaries are most 
destructive to salmon. They display considerable ingenuity in evading being 
captured by the net, into which they occasionally enter in search of their 
prey, creeping out at the bottom, or leaping over it at Ihe surface. They 
sometimes enter fresh-water lakes in pursuit of their prey. In the Statisti- 
cal Account (vol. vi. p. 260.) of the parish of North Knapdale, by the Rev. 
Archibald Campbell, it is said, that Lochow, which is about twenty miles in 
length, and three in breadth, “ abounds with plenty of the finest salmon ; 
and, what is uncommon, the seal comes up from the ocean, through a very ra- 
pid river, in quest of this fish, and retires to the sea at the approach of win- 
ter.” They Leed about midsummer, bringing forth their young, which are 
two in number, in caves on the coast. Seals were formerly used as food, 
though their flesh is dark coloured. At present they are sought after on ac- 
count of their skin, and the oil which they yield. A few of the young ones 
are slain in the caves in which they v^ere brought forth. The old ones are 
shot when at rest on sand-banks, or rocks, or taken in nets. Sometimes they 
are destroyed by recurved iron pikes, secured in beams of wood fixed on the 
banks, which they frequent, near low water-mark ; the, seals, at a proper time 
of tide, are surprised, and driven rapidly into the water, when they are 
interrupted and wounded by the pikes, and felled with clubs. According to 
Bean Monroe, seals, when on the banks at Lochegrenord, in Islay, were slain 
with trained dogs. They are eatily tamed, ( They are occasionally subject to 
epizooty. About fifty years ago, mullituLs of carcases were cast ashore 
in every bay in the north of Scotland, Orkney and Zetland, and numbers were 
found at sea in a sickly state. 
Mr Pennant mentions one taken near Chester in May 1766, which, at the 
time, was nearly naked ; only the head and a small spot beneath each fbre-leg 
being hairy, Brit. Zool. i. p. 139. In the last edition of the same work (1812), 
this var. is described as a distinct species. Pied Seal, with the nose tapered and 
elongated ; the fore-head black ; the hind-head and throat white, with a spot 
beneath each fore-leg of the same colour ; hind-feet dirty white ; remainder 
an intense black ; i. p, 177.J- 
The relics of the seal have been found in the marine diluvium which oc- 
curs on the banks of the F orth towards the head of the estuary. 
VOL. I. 
B 
