30 G. £. A BARRETTHAMIZLTION [suLY 
hours throughout his season, and a very much greater number if any 
large proportion of the cows received a second service. 
On this rookery there appears to have been only one bachelor 
large enough to assist the bulls, but he was not larger than a big cow, 
and does not seem to have exerted himself much : only on one occasion 
was the presence of three bulls (the third being probably the large 
bachelor) reported by the natives. 
These two South rookery bulls were neither of them apparently 
very old: but one of them was a pretty large dark bull, with a light 
wig; the other, a smaller bull, was, as has already been stated, 
only permitted by his rival to remain at or near the edge of the 
rookery. 
On the 24th July both these bulls appeared to be active, and each 
was observed in coitu at 3 P.M. 
On the 25th July the smaller bull was noted to be looking thin, 
and was seen in coifu at 11.30 a.m. He seemed to spend most of his 
time in sleep, whereas the larger bull was more active, and constantly 
examined his harem as if to find a cow in heat. 
On the 28th July, at 3 am., Mr. Volokitin (the Russian in charge 
of the rookery) noticed only one bull on the rookery. 
By the 29th July the two bulls had begun to go into the water 
and to follow the females to the outlying rocks on the reef, and on the 
30th, when I examined the rookery at 8.30 a.m., there were no adult 
seals on shore, and no bulls to be seen anywhere. Mr. Volokitin told 
me that one bull was on the beach on the ist August, but there were 
none to be seen when I visited it on the 2nd August. 
If the bulls were vigorous, the bachelors, down to the smallest of 
them, were equally so. In the earlier part of the season no bachelors 
were observed at the South rookery, but at the North rookery, as I have 
already said, I found them, when I first arrived there, lying in a pod 
by themselves apart from the breeding seals. As the season approached 
its height, and the number of cows so increased and spread over the 
sround as to render the task of the bulls who tried to restrain their 
movements a hopeless one, the bachelors began to mix amongst the 
females and to wander about among them much as they pleased. It 
was at this time that I was able to satisfy myself of the correctness 
of the observations, often described, of those who have seen the young 
bachelors covering the cows. 
My attention was first drawn to this at 4.35 pM. on the 30th 
June, by hearing the strange voice of a bachelor, neither quite like a 
cow nor quite like a bull, at the Reef section of the North rookery. I 
found that this proceeded from a small bachelor who was trying to 
cover a female, obviously in heat. Another and smaller bachelor also 
tried to cover the female, and then a bigger one coming by drove the 
small one away, and amused himself with the female until 5.3 p.m. She 
then escaped from him, being evidently satisfied, but he pursued her and 
