PEOPERTY IN THE ALASKAN SEAL HERD. 77 



at which time the breeding rookeries attain their maximum size and 

 compactness. 



8. The cows give birth to their young soon after taking their places 

 on the harems, in the latter part of June and in July, but a few are de- 

 layed until August. Tbe period of gestation is between eleven and 

 twelve months. 



9. A single young is born in each instance. The young at birth are 

 about equally divided as to sex. 



10. The act of nursing is performed on land, never in the water. It 

 is necessary, therefore, lor the cows to remain at the islands until the 

 young are weaned, which is not until they are four or five months old. 

 Each mother knows her own pup, and will not permit any other to 

 nurse This is the reason so many thousand pups starve to death on 

 the rookeries wlien their mothers are killed at sea. We have repeatedly 

 seen nursing cows come out pf the water and search for their young, 

 often traveling considerable distances and visiting group after group 

 of pups before finding their own. On reaching an assemblage of pups, 

 some of which are awake and others asleep, she rapidly moves about 

 among them, sniffing at each, and then gallops off to the next. Those 

 that are awake advance toward her, with the evident purpose of nursing, 

 but she repels them with a snarl and passes on. When she finds her 

 own, she fondles it a moment, turns partly over on her side so as to 

 present her nipples, and it promptly begins to suck. In one instance 

 we saw a mother carry her pup back a distance of fifteen meters (50 

 feet) before allowing it to nurse. It is said that the cows sometimes 

 recognize their young by their cry, a sort of bleat. 



11. Soon after birth the pups move away from the harems and hud- 

 dle together in small groups, called " pods," along the borders of the 

 breeding rookeries and at some distance from the water. The small 

 groups gradually unite to form larger groups, which move slowly down 

 to the water's edge. When six or eight weeks old the pups begi 1 1 to learn 

 to swim. Not only are the young not born at sea, but if soon after 

 birth they are washed into the sea they are drowned. 



12. The fur-seal is polygamous, and the male is at least five times as 

 large as the female. As a rule each male serves about fifteen or twenty 

 females, but in some cases as many as fifty or more. 



13. The act of copulation takes place on laud, and lasts from five to 

 ten minutes. Most of the cows are served by the middle of July, or 

 soon after the birth of their pups. They then take the water, and 

 come and go for food while nursing. 



14. Many young bulls succeed in securing a few cows behind or 

 away from the breeding harems, particularly late in the season (after 

 the middle of July, at which time the regular harems begin to break 

 up). It is almost certain that many, if not most, of the young cows 

 are served for the first time by these young bulls, either on the haul- 

 ing grounds or along the water front. 



These bulls may be distinguished at a glance from those on the reg- 

 ular harems by the circumstance that they are fat and in excellent con- 

 dition, while those that have fasted for three months on the breeding 

 rookeries are much emaciated and exhausted. The young bulls, even 

 when they have succeeded in capturing a number of cows, can be 

 driven from their stands with little difficulty, while (as is well known) 

 the old bulls on the harems will die in their tracks rather than leave. 



15. The cows are believed to take the bull first when two years old, 

 and deliver their first pup when three years old. 



10. Bulls first take stands on the breeding rookeries when six or seven 



