50 ZOOLOGY. 



pended, evidently designing to possess himself of the nest that he might eat the young insects 

 which it contained. This is precisely the hahit of the black hear, to which the cinnamon bear, 

 if distinct, must be very closely allied The color, though a striking peculiarity, is subject to 

 considerable variation ; and the texture of the coat is very similar in black and brown bears, 

 and very different from the thicker, coarser, and rougher covering of the grizzly. I saw a black 

 bear skin, brought by Lieutenant Day, United States army, from the head of Salmon river, 

 Oregon Territory, which was as soft and lustrous as silk. 



The size of the black bear of the west is about the same as in the eastern States ; the brown 

 bear is represented as being rather larger and longer limbed. Both are hunted with much less 

 fear and caution than the formidable grizzlies. 



OTAKIA ? 



The Sea Lion. 



This large seal is quite abundant on the few rocky islands which lie off the coast of Oregon 

 and California. In passing from Crescent City to Sau Francisco we saw immense numbers of 

 them on the detached rocks a few miles from shore, near Cape Mendocino. Some of these rocks 

 were covered with them, basking in the warm morning sunshine. As the steamer approached, 

 they began to be disturbed, moving about with considerable facility, and making a hoarse kind 

 of growling or barking in chorus ; in their movements, their color, and their cries, resembling a 

 crowd of black and brown bears. As we came nearer, most of them scrambled to the edge of 

 the rocks and threw themselves, sometimes from the height of eight or ten feet, into the sea, 

 one or two, perhaps old or disabled individuals, usually remaining and keeping up a defiant 

 growl while we were passing. In the water they still kept together, showing only their rela- 

 tively small heads, swimming and diving with great ease and rapidity. There was considerable 

 diversity of size and color among them. Some were evidently quite young, and others larger 

 than the largest grizzly bear. he variation of color was from dark brown, almost black, to 

 light fulvous. 



At the Farallones islands, forty miles off the coast, and opposite San Francisco, this, with 

 several other species, is very abundant. They there attain a weight of two thousand pounds 

 and over, and are exceedingly ferocious. During the nuptial season the fierce and bloody 

 battles between the males make of these islands a perfect pandemonium, and all the old males, 

 bloody and scarred, carry on their sides and shoulders evidences of their recent or remote 

 conflicts. 



They are sometimes killed with fire arms, though, from their great size and tenacity of life, 

 it is rare that a mortal wound is inflicted. While we were in San Francisco, in June, 1855, 

 Dr. Wm, 0. Ayres, of that city, visited the Farallones, bringing back a variety of interesting 

 matter, both of specimens and facts, illustrative of the fauna of those islands. Amon other 

 things, the skull of a sea lion, in reference to which, as he presented it to the California 

 academy, he made the following remarks : 



"This specimen is of interest as illustrating, in one particular, the habits of these animals. 

 The left zygomatic arch has been perforated by a bullet, and the lower part of the left inferior 

 maxillary bone shattered by another ; both of these injuries having been received so long since 

 that the action of the absorbents has almost smoothed the splintered edges of the bones. Inside 

 of the wound of the zygoma was found the piece of lead which had caused it, and which was at 

 once recognized, from certain peculiarities of form, as one which had been fired, without fata] 

 effect, at a sea lion, on the same rocks, in the summer of 1854. We have thus a demonstration 



