Volume 23, Plate II / Mammalia (Mammals)

Common Seal of the Scotch Coasts

Phoca Vitulina

The Common Seal wears a dark tawny-white coat studded with brownish-black spots, paler on the belly, its robe wholly of short hard hair without fur and the tail unspotted. Reaching five to six feet and swimming with great rapidity, it feeds chiefly on flounders and other fish, ascends rivers after salmon, hauls out upon shelving rocks with a sentinel posted, and frequents the coasts of Britain and Ireland.