Page:The Zoologist, 1st series, vol 1 (1843).djvu/99

Rh "'My father has made several attempts to rear and tame this seal, hut in vain. It appears scarcely susceptible of domestication, and the development of its skull seems to indicate as much; for the size of the brain of a specimen nearly eight feet long did not exceed that of one of Phoca variegata (vitulina) of less than four feet. The head and general form of Halichærus are long in proportion to its rotundity, comparatively with other seals.

"'On examining the remains of Donovan's Ph. barbata, now in the British Museum, I recognised in it an ill-put-up specimen of our Halichærus; and I presume the stuffer has endeavoured to make the specimen correspond with the description of Ph. barbata, by unduly plumping up the snout and shortening the thumbs, which are evidently pushed in by the wires intended to support the paws. Sir Everard Home figured, in the * Philosophical Transactions ' of 1822, a cranium from a drawing belonging to Mr. Hunter, of 'the skull of the great seal deposited in the British Museum from the South Seas.' I suspect that there is some mistake in the reference of the letter-press to the figure; and the reference in Griffith's Cuvier seems also incorrect. Could the skull from which the figure is taken have belonged to Donovan's seal? I have a similar skull from a similar seal that I killed myself, and feel much inclined to believe it did.

"'I find that the palatal foramina furnish a good character; for while in Halichærus they open in or on the palatal bones, they in several species of Phoca open in the maxillaries. This is a character of value, as it is not influenced by age. The hairs of the whiskers in this species are flattened in one direction, and contracted at regular intervals in the other; so that when viewed in front they appear linear, when seen sideways they are moniliform. Their colour varies from whitish horn colour to blackish.

"'It occurred to me several years since that I could kill seals by going to the mouths of their caves, and striking them with a harpoon as they dived out. Acting on this, in August 1829 I went to Howth properly equipped, and took a position at the mouth of a cave, in which I could hear the inmates baying loudly like large dogs. On making a noise from the boat, several seals passed out with great velocity, at the depth of about eight feet: one I struck with an oar, and another with a harpoon, but not effectually, as it gave way after a short struggle. Learning from the failure, we made ready for the next, which I could distinctly see at the bottom of the water, attentively watching us, sometimes advancing and again retreating: it seemed scared by the harpoons, which the friend who aided me and I held so deep in the water as only to offer it room to pass. After a considerable time so spent, we raised our weapons a little, when it made a start to escape, but in vain, as both our harpoons struck it, mine penetrating even to its heart. It twisted the shaft out of my hands and broke it short off, though between two and three inches in diameter; it then pulled our boat out to sea, and when compelled to come to the surface, we fired two shots into it before it ceased violent exertion. The quantity of blood was enormous, spreading to a great extent on the surface of the water. I estimate the weight of the animal, though in poor condition, to have been upwards of five hundred pounds; its skeleton now measures seven feet two inches; it was a very aged female, judging from the state of its teeth, yet it appeared to be suckling young, as there was milk in its mammæ.'"—p. 279.

We have two examples of the squirrel tribe, the common squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris) and the dormouse (Myoxus avellanarius), and eight