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



Probably the cows do not leave their pups until the latter are 

 capable of moving about by themselves, and refuse to be controlled by 

 their mothers. The young pups grow with great rapidity. At first 

 they are very weak and feeble-looking, but they seem to feed a good 

 deal during the first few days of their life, and already, on the 26th 

 June at the South rookery, there was a distinct difference visible 

 between the pups which had seen a week or ten days of life and the 

 little thin new-born ones. By the 30th June, at the North rookery, 

 a few of the little pups were independent enough to begin to collect 

 together in little pods, and on the previous day I had seen one 

 swimming in the shallow water on Kishotchnaya reef. A fortnight 

 later, on the 13th July, the pups lay outside the harems of the reef 

 in black patches, giving the rookery quite a new appearance, and 

 causing its outline to look very irregular. 



I think these little podding pups may fairly be taken as an indication 

 of the time each mother stays on shore with her pup after its birth, as 

 well as an index to the number of females on shore. I do not think 

 any female left her pup until about the 29th June, and that it was not 

 until ten or twelve days later that any appreciable number of them 

 did so. I believe also that for some days after the female has thus 

 parted from her pup for the first time she does not go to any distance 

 from the rookery, but contents herself with short excursions to the 

 outlying rocks, reefs, or kelp-patches, where she washes or plays away 

 the hours, and probably also feeds. This is borne out by my observa- 

 tions both at Kishotchnaya and the Eeef as well as at the South 

 rookery. 



At the latter rookery (from July 24 to 30, 1897) we could 

 always account for so many seals that it is extremely unlikely that 

 any great number of them travelled to a distance from the rookery in 

 search of food. Yet that they were, feeding I know for a fact, having 

 on more than one occasion seen them spewing up undigested portions 

 of their meals while on shore. Taking this fact into consideration, as 

 well as the fact that seals are usually to be observed by vessels coasting 

 between Nikoski to the south-west of Copper Island, when at a distance 

 of from 3 to 1 miles from the shore, and that in that region fish are 

 abundant, as evidenced by the abundance of birds, I believe that the 

 nursing Fur Seal mother gets her food for some little time after the 

 birth of her pup at no great distance from the shore, and only lengthens 

 her excursions as the pup grows older. 



In the end, however, when at last she does leave her pup to travel 

 to the distant feeding-grounds at sea, she remains there so long, either 

 sleeping or playing, that when she returns to the rookery her udder is 

 distended with milk and her stomach empty. 



On these occasions the seal-mother very often finds a little ravenous 

 and half-starved pup noisily awaiting her arrival and eagerly demand- 

 ing his dinner from all the other mothers he meets. These, one and 



