THE SOUTHERN SEA LION 295 



When in repose the upper eyelids are always drooping as if to protect the eyes, and 

 when the animal is ashore there is such a continual stream of tears that there is usually 

 a large wet patch behind and below each eye. This flow has in the past excited the 

 compassion of observers who attribute to the seal emotions which it very doubtfully 

 possesses. The function of the tears is to avert the desiccation and irritation to which 

 the eyes of the animal are liable when they are exposed for long to the air and dust. 

 This sensitivity is so marked that many sea lions became blind in the course of a 

 drive which was made for commercial purposes— an operation which was not re- 

 peated. 



As might be expected from the uproar on the rookeries very little attention is paid 

 to strange noises, nor does Otaria seem to have any liking for musical sounds ; this is 

 a taste for which Phoca is well known, and I believe it is found in Hydrurga also. 

 When addressed in low tones the sea lion pays no heed, but shouting will often help 

 to move an obstinate animal. Nevertheless the adult is sensitive to quite minute 

 differences in tone, since a cow will pick out her pup's voice from among those of fifty 

 other sea lions of all ages and she is never at fault. The pups on the other hand will 

 answer almost any cow they hear. 



Although it is inevitable that all hunting is done by sight, the sense of smell is well 

 developed ; the scent of man is at times sufiicient to induce panic in sea lions at a distance 



of 200 yards. 



The sea lion is sensitive to touch, but when consideration is given to the severe and 

 numerous superficial wounds which they give and receive during the breeding season, 

 it appears that they have ro acute sense of pain in the skin. Scars and wounds are the 

 rule and not the exception; they are particularly numerous on breeding cows who 

 receive most of their injuries from the bulls. 



FOOD 



The diet of Otaria is varied; squid is perhaps the commonest food, then Munida 

 and finally fish. It is obvious that squids are abundant round the Falklands. I have no 

 recognizable specimen from a sea-lion's stomach, but examples from a large shoal of 

 these invertebrates which entered Stanley Harbour have been identified as a species 

 of LoUgo by Mr G. C. Robson. By the action of the gastric juice the ink becomes a 

 bright yellow in the stomach of the sea lion, and this colour is maintained even in the 

 faeces. Similarly with Munida the faeces are brick red and skeletal parts of the crustacean 

 are abundant in them, while the faeces derived from fish are grey and contain bones. 

 Once these identifications had been made it was very easy to see even from a distance 

 what had been the recently prevalent food of the sea lions. 



It seems likely that the pups begin to eat solid food as a result of their habit of 

 playing with and biting everything which takes their fancy. They may, for example, 

 be seen gnawing the mixed growths on rocks exposed by the ebb or chewing pieces 

 of the seaweed Diirvillea found on the beach, and they doubtless learn by experience 



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