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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Miguel Island, which is only a few 

 miles north of Santa Rosa Island. ^ 



The sea lion seen by the visitor to 

 zoological park and circus, is almost 

 always the female of the California sea 

 lion, although occasionally a small bull 

 of that species, or a cow of Steller's sea 

 lion, is seen. A large bull of Steller's 

 sea lion never has been taken alive. 

 Once on one of the Santa Barbara 

 Islands a boat's crew of fifteen men 

 succeeded in getting a rope around the 

 neck of a sleeping bull of this species, 

 but they might as well have lassoed a 

 locomotive. The sea lion kept the rope 

 as a souvenir. 



^ I record this with considerable doubt and hesi- 

 tation, and emphasis on the words "said to be." 

 I have personal knowledge that these rookeries 

 are as recorded for the above species, and also 

 that the several rookeries I have visited south of 

 Santa Rosa were only of the California sea lion, 

 but for the coast between San Miguel Island north 

 to Ano Nuevo Island, I have only hearsay evi- 

 dence^ obtained from men who apparently were 

 able to distinguish between the two species. 

 Among these men, however, was a boatman who 

 for many years has made a business of catcliing 

 sea lions on the Santa Barbara Islands for zoo- 

 logical parks and menageries, and who knows the 

 sea lions probably better than anyone else on the 

 coast. The Santa Barbara Islands include the 

 above islands and lie just below Point Conception, 

 where the coast bends sharply eastward, and 

 where a break between the breeding ranges of the 

 two species logically might occur, for here several 

 subtropical aquatic forms find their northernmost 

 range. 



There are several rocky islets along 

 the California coast that are known as 

 ".seal rocks." Such are the famous 

 Seal Rocks off the Cliff House at San 

 Francisco. These are not breeding 

 grounds but resorts of the sea lions and 

 seals, although an occasional pup may 

 be born on them (usually by a cow in 

 her first year of breeding). Hence the 

 observer must be cautious in reporting 

 these resorts, or so-called "hauling 

 grounds," as rookeries. 



Among sea lions the same breeding 

 grounds or "rookeries" are used year 

 after year. Just why a certain piece 

 of rocky coast should be selected always 

 when the contiguous pieces are appar- 

 ently identical is not known, but so it 

 is. The sea lion is polygamous, the 

 breeding bulls forming harems of from 

 ten to twenty or even more.^ 



- The names applied to the breeding habits and 

 breeding place.' of the sea lion are most curiously 

 mixed, and these names are used even in scientific 

 literature. The breeding adults are known as 

 bulls and cows ; the adults not yet breeding are 

 known as bachelors and virgins ; the young of 

 both sexes are called pups ; and the breeding 

 places are known as rookeries. Thus the names 

 of the breeding adults are the same as those ap- 

 plied to cattle ; the names of adults not yet breed- 

 ing are those used for humans ; the name of the 

 young is the name used for the young of the dog ; 

 and the name of the breeding place is the name 

 applied to the breeding places of birds. 



I'liotiiant/ilicd from g/it'ciiiirnji in thi> American Museum 



Skulls of male and female of the Steller's sea lion (on the left) and of the California sea lion (on 



the right) show the comparative sizes of the two species. In the Steller's sea lion the two posterior 



upper molars are separated Vjy a wide space, whereas those of the California sea lion are close together 



