1899] THE HABITS OF THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL 23 
other bulls who had to be content with harems containing from one 
to six females each, while there were yet again other bulls which 
were as yet unable to get among the breeding females at all, and 
which represented the “idle” or “reserve” bulls of the Pribilof 
Islands. 
Several points struck me in connection with the habits and dis- 
position of the bulls during the earlier parts of the season :—There 
were at the North rookery no bulls anxiously awaiting the arrival of 
the cows on the shore-line. The best stations were evidently not on 
the shore-line, but at the places where the patches of first-arriving 
cows were massed together, and it was to these patches and not to the 
sea that the attention of the still unoccupied bulls was directed. 
Many of the bulls, both of those which possessed harems and those 
which did not, were asleep, and were not displaying that almost cease- 
less activity which a perusal of the writings of Mr. H. W. Elliott 
would lead one to expect. 
The cows were not received by the bulls at the shore-line, but 
seemed to come in unnoticed and quietly joined one or other of the 
patches of their sisters who had already arrived. Sometimes a cow 
was delayed in her progress up the beach by the unwelcome attentions 
of one or other of the wandering half-bulls which had not yet gained 
a harem, but such delay was seldom of long duration, as the cows 
were very persistent in their movements and resented as angrily as 
they dared all attempts of the half-bulls to stop them. 
The rookery in its first beginnings did not consist of a large 
area of loosely scattered bulls and cows, but of the above described 
densely crowded, although small, patches. It is thus interesting to 
note the passage by a large rookery early in the season, although 
in the reverse order, through the stages exhibited by one which is 
in the course of being exterminated. The former starts as a 
number of detached and crowded patches, which in the end coalesce 
and fuse to form one rookery; the latter musters in the early part 
of the season in exactly the same manner, but the patches may 
never grow large enough to coalesce and fuse. In spite of the 
crowded condition of these patches, the cows were, as at Robben Island, 
constantly quarrelling with and snapping at each other. The bachelors, 
no doubt owing to the great proportion of old and unoccupied bulls 
present, were hauled up in one lot by themselves, and amongst them 
were several of the large half-bulls, which later in the season were 
acting as masters of harems on the breeding-grounds. 
The bachelors appeared to be ready to stampede had they been 
approached too closely, but the bulls and cows could not, I think, have 
been moved except by force. The bulls roared at us and were very 
threatening, but would not leave their cows to attack us. All 
the bulls appeared to be in good health, but in a variable state of 
fatness. 
