CAUSES OF CHANGES IN HABITS, ETC. 401 



ered into herds of from six hundred to eight hundred each ; 

 that number being as many as can be driven to advantage in 

 one flock. 



"The decrease of the reserves from 1870 to 1872 gave ample 

 room on the old breeding-places without forming new rookeries. 

 Later the increase of the females made it necessary for them to 

 occupy the open places which had before afforded passages for 

 the young males from the water to the uplands, so that the 

 young males on their arrival, after trying in vain to find land- 

 ing-places as before, passed the rookeries and occupied the 

 beaches of the coves and bays beyond. This began in 1872, 

 and in 1875 had become general, and may now be considered as 

 a fixed habit. As it saves gathering them in small groups, it 

 greatly facilitates the process of obtaining the drives without 

 detrimental effect to the rookeries. 



" When I made my estimate of the number of the Seals in 1869, 

 the proportionate number these groups bore to the breeding- 

 rookery near which they were located suggested the inquiry 

 whether the young returned to the exact point where they were 

 born. I found on questioning the natives that they believed 

 they did thus return. To test this matter I had, in November, 

 1870, fifty young males selected from one rookery, and marked 

 on the right ear, and fifty more selected from another rookery, 

 two miles distant from the first, were marked on the left ear. 

 The result was that in 1873, when they were of the proper age 

 to be taken for their skins, four of them were killed on Saint 

 Paul's Island, at points more or less distant from the place 

 where they were marked, and two were found on the island of 

 Saint George. 



" Passing now to the consideration of the females, we meet 

 with greater difficulties and arrive at less satisfactory results, 

 owing to the fact that our knowledge of them during the first 

 three years is less definite. During the first four months after 

 birth the sexes do not appreciably differ. When the Seals are 

 driven to the uplands in November for the purpose of selecting 

 young males for the winter supply of food for the natives, the 

 sexes, as nearly as can be judged, are equal in numbers ; but 

 at this time the females average at least one-tenth smaller than 

 the males. 



"At this stage they leave the island for the winter, and very 

 few appear to return to the island until they are three years old. 



Misc. Pub. No. 12 26 



