342 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



been published on the subject. This is the elaborate 

 work of Mr. Joel Asaph Allen : ' 



From the time of the first arrivals in May up to the 1st of 

 June, as late as the middle of this month if the weather be 

 clear, is an interval in which everything seems quiet ; very few 

 seals are added to the pioneers. By the 1st of June, however, or 

 thereabouts, the foggy, humid weather of summer sets in, and 

 with it the bull-seals come up by hundreds and thousands, and 

 locate themselves in advantageous positions for the reception 

 of the females, which are from three weeks to a month later, 

 as a rule. The labour of locating and maintaining a position 

 in the rookery is really a serious business for those bulls which 

 come in last, and for those that occupy the water-line, frequently 

 resulting in death from severe wounds in combat sustained. It 

 appears to be a well understood principle among the able-bodied 

 bulls that each one shall remain undisturbed on his ground, 

 which is usually about ten feet square, provided he is strong 

 enough to hold it against all comers; for the crowding in of fresh 

 bulls often causes the removal of those who, though equally able- 

 bodied at first, have exhausted themselves by fighting earlier, 

 and are driven by the fresher animals back further and higher 

 up on the rookery. Some of these bulls show wonderful 

 strength and courage. I have marked one veteran, who was 

 among the first to take up his position, and that one on the 

 water-line, when at least fifty or sixty desperate battles were 

 fought victoriously by him with nearly as many different seals 

 who coveted his position ; and when the fighting season was 

 over (after the cows have mostly all hauled up) I saw him 

 covered with scars and gashes, raw and bloody, an eye gouged 

 out, but holding it bravely over his harem of fifteen or twenty 

 cows, all huddled together on the same spot he had first chosen. 

 The fighting is mostly or entirely done with the mouth, the 

 opponents seizing each other with the teeth and clenching 

 the jaws; nothing but sheer strength can shake them loose, and 

 that effort almost always leaves an ugly wound, the sharp canines 

 tearing out deep gutters in the skin and blubber, or shredding 

 the flippers into ribbon-stiips. They usuallv approach each 

 other with averted heads and a great many false passes before 

 either one or the other takes the initiative by gripping ; the 

 heads are darted out and back as quick as flash, their hoai^se 

 roaring and shrill piping whistle never ceases, while their fat 



1 llistoi-y of the North American Pinnipeds. The quotations are 

 taken from pp. 348 to 361. 



