74 M. Peron on the Habits of the Sea Elephant. 



of fasting both for father and mother. The growth of the 

 nursling is very rapid, and is promoted entirely at the ex- 

 pence of the mother, who visibly grows leaner. " They 

 have even been seen to die, but it is difficult to say whe- 

 ther they had sunk from exhaustion, or some particular ill- 

 ness had caused their deaths." When the young ones ap- 

 pear strong enough they lead them to the sea. The herd 

 swim in regular order, and if any little one lingers behind, it 

 is immediately seized and bit, and brought back to its family. 

 This exercise continues for three weeks, during which time 

 the males and the females recruit their strength which had 

 been exhausted by their long abstinence ; the little ones grow 

 accustomed to the food which is to support them all their 

 lives, and the whole family return to the shore. 



Then the bloody battles begin between the males disputing 

 for the possession of the females. All their friendships are 

 broken, until the conquerors have made their choice, and left 

 to their rivals the females they have rejected. These fero- 

 cious amours of the sea elephant do not indicate a high degree 

 of instinct^ although, in their ordinary state, these animals are 

 of social habits, and live together in large herds, watch in 

 turn for the common safety, and appear even to be capable 

 of a sort of education. The cry of the female and of the 

 young male is something like the bellowing of a vigorous 

 ox, but in the full grown males the tubular prolongation of 

 the nostril produces such a modulation of the voice, that the 

 cry of the latter has a great resemblance to the noise which a 

 man makes when he is gargling. This hoarse and singular 

 cry is heard at a great distance ; it has something wild and 

 singular in it, and frequently, when in the middle of the tem- 

 pestuous nights we were awakened out of our sleep by the 

 confused bowlings of great numbers of these colossal animals 

 which covered the shore in the neighbourhood of our tents, 

 we could scarcely help feeling a sensation of fear, which no- 

 thing but the certainty of the real weakness of the animal 

 could dispel. 



Although these animals herd together, they have in no in- 

 stance been seen to defend one another ; probably this arises 

 from the slowness of their motions, which renders each indi- 



