772 ADDITIONS AND COERECTIONS. 



Lion bad just been born at the Garden. In respect to the 

 period of gestation, etc., Mr. Thompson later kindly gave nie the 

 following interesting particulars: "The mother arrived in the 

 Garden on July 2, 1879, and was seen in copulation with the 

 male several times between July 10 and 15. The young one 

 was born May 31, 1880, making the period of gestation about 

 ten and a half months. It was evidently the first calf, and 

 therefore, as is generally the case, the period of gestation was 

 a little lengthened. The youngster is just fourteen days old 

 this morning [June 14], but does not as yet show the least 

 desire to go into the water. He will follow his mother to the 

 edge of the water and there quietly remain while she takes her 

 bath. We had the mother in our possession thirty days before 

 she ate, and as she must have been captured twenty -five or 

 thirty days previous, she was without food for some fifty or 

 sixty days. She was shipped from San Francisco, California, 

 by rail, in a simple wicker basket, and I do not believe she had 

 a drop of water in transitu." 



CALLORHINUS URSINUS. 



BREEDING OFF THE COAST OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY. 

 In a letter from Mr. James G. Swan, Field Assistant of the 

 United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, dated Neah 

 Bay, Washington Territory, July 17, 1880, kindly communi- 

 cated by Dr. Coues, contains the following respecting the breed- 

 ing of the Fur Seal off the coast of Washington Territory : 



" Several new facts and theories have been developed by my 

 investigations about Fur Seals this season. The fact that they 

 do have pups in the open ocean off the entrance to Fuca Strait, 

 is well established by evidence of every one of the sealing cap- 

 tains, the Indians, and my own personal observations. Doctor 

 Power says the fact does not admit of dispute. The theory of 

 the captains is, first, that this fact proves conclusively that 

 these Seals do not go to Behring's Sea to have their young, and 

 hence they argue that they do not go there at all, but 'haul out' 

 for purposes of reproduction on some undiscovered islands in 

 the North Pacific, or go at once to the coast of Japan or Siberia 

 where they are known to abound. It seems as preposterous to 

 my mind to suppose that all the Fur Seals of the North Pacific 

 go to the Pribylov Islands as to suppose that all the salmon go 

 to the Columbia and Frazer's River or to the Yakon. 



