SEALS 
like an adult animal. It uttered a low soft hah, or single 
call-note, and looked about after its mother and crawled 
towards her when she came out of the water. The mother 
would turn upon her side in order to let the young one 
suck. The young seal was 32 in. long, and weighed 20 lbs. 
at its birth. A notice written by me appeared in the 
Zoological Society’s Proceedings, June 1868, recording the 
above facts : — 
NOTES UPON THE BIRTH OF A RINGED SEAL IN THE 
society’s gardens. by a. D. BARTLETT, SUPER- 
INTENDENT OF THE society’s GARDENS. 
On May 23, 1868, the Society obtained from a 
dealer in Liverpool four fine adult seals {Phoca foctida), 
said to have been taken in Heligoland. I noticed that one 
of them was of large size, and suspected that it was a 
female in young. I therefore had her placed by herself in 
an enclosure with a small shallow pond of water. Here 
she soon became perfectly tame, and fed freely from the 
hand of the keeper. We continued to notice the increase 
of bulk, and the movements of the young one were quite 
apparent. 
On Monday, June 8, she was very uneasy, and appeared 
to me to be in considerable pain ; I therefore kept a con- 
stant watch, and the man who had charge of her remained 
with her all night. She continued in this state until about 
twelve o’clock on Tuesday, at which time she produced the 
young one. It was born near the edge of the water, and in 
a few minutes after its birth, by rolling and turning about, 
was completely divested of the outer covering of fur and 
hair, which formed a complete mat, upon which the young 
animal lay for the first hour or two after its birth. When 
born it was very active, and within three hours afterwards 
165 
