THE FUR SEAL 



133 



bachelor in compiiny with an juhilt male and female. The little yearling 

 belongs there, because yearlings are permitted to come to the edge of the 

 rookeries where they play with the baby seals or pups, so-called because 

 they suggest fat little Newfoundland puppies. 



The fur seal belongs to that division or group of seals known as eared 

 seals, from the possession, in contrast to their relatives, of useless little ears 

 which seem to serve no good pm-pose save for classification. All the mem- 

 bers of this group have long, l)are front flippers and have the ability to 

 stand on all fours and to walk about on land, somewhat awkwardly perhaps, 

 although for a short distance even a big fur seal can sprint almost as rapidly 

 as a man. 



The best known of the eared seals is the California sea lion, which is to 



Young Stellcr'.s st>a lions at Ano Nuovo, one mile o(T tlie California coast opposite Pesca- 

 dero. Both young sea lions and young seals are piippylike and inoffensive. The sea lion 

 or fur .seal mother will not can^ for other than her own offspring; thus killing at sea results 

 in a large loss in starvelings at the rook(M'y 



be found in every zoological garden and of late years has become familiar 

 to us as a performer on the ^'aude^•ille stage. It is much more tractable 

 and intelligent than the fur seal, which is stupid and intractable though 

 making up what it lacks in reasoning power in highly de\eloped instincts. 



The most remarkable among these is the homing instinct, the ability 

 to return to the spot where it was born, a power much more wonderful in a 

 creature whose course lies over the sea where there are no possible landmarks 

 to guide it, than in birds that can at least see for several miles about them. 

 Year after year, as regularly as the seasons roll around, the seals return 

 to their homes on the Pribilof Islands after a six months' absence. When 



