64 THE FUR SEALS OF THE PRIBtLOF ISLANDS. 



I In- ureatest comfort, rocked by the gentle swell. In such calm days as occur during 

 the mouths of September and October the water oft' the rookery fronts and sand 

 beaches is literally black with the swimming and sleeping pups. Occasionally older 

 seals at this time, and more frequently earlier in the season, are to be seen in the 

 same position. 



THEIR ATTITUDES. 



Au interesting feature about the fur seal in its naps on the rookery is the 

 variety of attitudes which it assumes. The sleeping animals assume every conceivable 

 shape and position. One animal is stretched out at full length on its back, another 

 on its side, still another on its stomach. Again, the hind flippers may be tucked 

 up under the body, the foreflippers outstretched. These conditions may be exactly 

 reversed. Or the hind flippers may be waving lazily in the air like n fan. On a 

 day when the sun shines for a few minutes the seal lies prone upon the ground with 

 its flippers in the air. The sight of thousands upon thousands of the animals thus 

 stretched out. almost gasping for breath and with every hind flipper waving in the 

 effort to keep cool, is a most interesting one. 



The seals enjoy the rocks. They do not care for a smooth and even bed. The 

 body has a wonderful power of adaptation to its rocky bed of water-worn bowlder.-. 

 One cow finds a flat rock on which she curls up and lets her head hang over the side 

 at a most reckless angle. Another lies with her head elevated upon a rock, as though 

 on a pillow. A favorite position among the animals is to sleep sitting up with the 

 head thrown back and the body wavering with the respirations as if it would fall. 

 On rookeries where perpendicular cliffs form the back ground the animals are to be 

 found stowed away on little shelves and in little angles where it is a wonder they can 

 keep their positions at all. 



THE COLORATION. 



There is more or less diversity in the coloration of the various animals, which 

 lends interest to the picture of rookery life. The little pups are at birth shiny black 

 with a white spot in the axil. Some of them show a brownish shade along the throat 

 and belly. In September they shed their black coats and don coats of gray, which, 

 under the action of the weather, soon change into the brownish or combination brown 

 and silvery color of the adults. 



On her first landing the adult female is dark, slightly olivaceous, gray. Under 

 exposure to the weather, and especially the sunshine, she turns to a rusty reddish 

 brown, somewhat darker on the back, lighter on the throat and belly. The great 

 uniformity of this coloration, as seen among the cows during June of 1897 before they 

 had begun to go to sea, confirms the belief that these darker colors, as a rule, go with 

 the older animals. 



About the middle of July, the time at which the younger bachelors begin to 

 appear in greatest number, the rookeries also show large numbers of animals which 

 in their silvery throats and bellies contrast sharply with the animals already present. 

 Their backs present the same dark-brown shade, but the silvery gray uiulerneath the 

 body is entirely different. Their small size, the black whiskers, and the lateness of 

 their arrival proclaim them to be younger animals. But not all the younger animals 

 are of this sort, as two virgin females killed side by side were each of a distinct type 



