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DISCOVERY REPORTS 



that some flavours are preferable to others. The stomachs of twelve pups examined in 

 June gave the following results : 



These pups were in part at least subsisting on milk ; but they were evidently experi- 

 menting without much discrimination on other forms of food and were taking stuff 

 from the bottom. They were as a rule playing in shallow water only a few inches deep. 

 I have never found ascidians or spider crabs in the stomachs of older animals. 

 Occasionally the species eats large Medusae. 



The sea lion will at times kill and eat birds. At one time I was stationed on Bird 

 Island, West Falkland, where there is a very large rookery of the rockhopper penguin. 

 As is usual at such places the birds could be seen coming ashore in herds, and it was 

 common for such companies to be pursued by parties of sea lions, which were sometimes 

 able to surround the birds and catch what suited themselves. The surviving penguins 

 finally made for the shore at a headlong pace, and indeed all the penguins seemed to 

 come to the island at top speed. On two occasions I found penguins badly torn and 

 dying from wounds received from the sea lions, both birds being injured about the 

 neck. I have also had reports of Otaria eating the logger or steamer duck (Tachyeres), 

 which is abundant in the Falklands, and it is certain that on the appearance of a sea 

 lion these birds will at once rush for the shore in a state of excitement. 



The sea lions are very fond of cruising about in the Macrocystis beds, where small 

 Nototheniid fish are plentiful, and they can often be seen plunging about far off shore 

 where a flock of sea birds has collected. The attraction for birds and seals alike is 

 almost certainly a shoal of Munida of the sort which is so often seen off the Falklands. 



Many stomachs of adults contain no food nor remains of it. Of nineteen examined 

 nine were in this state and every one of the others contained squid remains ; Munida 

 was present in one and fish possibly had been present in another. 



In the stomach of practically every sea lion there may be found a quantity of stones, 

 varying in size, roughly but not invariably, with the size of the animal. The details of 

 stones taken from four stomachs follow : 



