32 G. E. H. BARRETT-HAMILTON [july 



showed that she was evidently in heat ; the cow and bachelor were of 

 about the same size. 



The extraordinary thing about it all is that this bull (and so, too, 

 in the case of other bulls) had no objection whatsoever to allowing 

 young bachelors to enter his harem and cover his cows. Had, however, 

 one of the large outlying half-bulls approached the harem, or even 

 moved about in its neighbourhood, the bull would have been very 

 excited, and would have roared incessantly, and have gone out to 

 attack the half-bull. The mere sight of copulation, however, going on 

 near a bull does not excite his interest in the least so long as it does 

 not occur in ground which he claims for his own. 



At the South rookery I did not see anything of this sort going on, 

 and the larger of the two bulls was much more careful in keeping the 

 bachelors out. All of the latter that I saw were, however, with one 

 exception, very small ones, and mixed with the cows at the southern 

 edge of the rookery. 



It is thus evident that the sexual feelings of even the smallest 

 bachelors are very strongly developed, and I can thoroughly indorse 

 the remarks of Mr. F. W. True on this subject (see his Eeport for 

 1895). Even the small male pups have the testes in a very forward 

 state of development, and by the 29th July, at the South rookery, I 

 saw the little black pups acting to each other in a way that made it 

 certain that their sexual feelings had already made themselves felt. 



With regard to the mutual relationship of males and females, there 

 is little to be said that has not been already included under some 

 other heading in this article. That the cows are as little " dove-like " 

 in their dealing with the bulls as with their own sex, I am able to 

 state from personal observation, and I have seen an offended female 

 bite a bull savagely and then leave him and go to another harem. 

 For a short time, however, during the breeding-season, a feeling which 

 almost appears to amount to affection exists between bull and cow, and 

 is best observed in the cases where a single bull and cow are to be 

 found sitting by themselves. They are then for a short time insepar- 

 able, but after the sexual feeling has been satisfied they become as 

 snappish to each other as before. Such pairs of breeding animals are 

 more frequently to be observed at the end of the season, when the 

 older seals have left the rookeries and the young bulls and cows come 

 on to the breeding-ground. The harems are then small, and frequently 

 consist of one cow only. 



I have already quoted observations tending to show that the 

 animals do not separate until copulation has taken place more than 

 once. A young bull and cow noted at Zapadnie rookery on the 7th 

 August were still together and inseparable on the 9 th. As the season 

 goes on, the cows forsake the beach in constantly increasing numbers 

 for the water in its neighbourhood, while the bulls retire to sandy or 

 shingly beaches, where they can haul up free from domestic worries. 



