ELEPHANT SEAL: BREEDING HABITS 239 



harem unguarded and will only pursue the intruder a little way. When he wishes to 

 return to the harem he stops by throwing forward his weight, without raising the fore 

 part of the body on the fore flippers as he does in normal progression, so that he 

 pitches forward on to his chest, raising the back part of the body and hind flippers 

 high into the air. He then raises the fore quarters and swings round on the middle part 

 of the body with both ends raised up in the air at the same time, and returns to his 

 cows. He goes through the same process in chasing a rival bull, and will also suddenly 

 swing round on the middle of the belly in this peculiar way to face an intruder if he 

 is disturbed when asleep. If the disturbance is slight and behind him, to save himself 

 the trouble of swinging round unnecessarily, he raises his head vertically and bends it 

 back so far that he looks along his own back at the cause of his uneasiness. Cows and 

 small bulls, if disturbed, will bite on a stick presented to them and wrench it forcibly 

 from the hands; no doubt the big bulls would do so as well. The bachelor bulls fight 

 considerably among themselves in the breeding season, when they are hanging round 

 the outskirts of the rookeries. The fights between the bachelor bulls frequently last 

 on and off for a long time, two of them lying near each other on the beach being engaged 

 in bouts of fighting all day long. 



The bulls very rarely, if ever, give each other mortal injuries; at least no case of this 

 has ever come to the notice of the writer, but they often wound each other severely. 

 Most of the wounds are lacerations and cuts on the sides of the neck, so that the skin 

 of this region in an old bull becomes entirely hairless and covered with thick wrinkled 

 and scarred skin (Plate XXI, fig. i; Plate XXII, fig. i ; Plate XXIII, figs, i, 2). 

 Lacerations of the proboscis are also frequent, sometimes, though not commonly, the 

 greater part of it is completely torn away ; the usual wounds are cuts in the front over- 

 hanging portion, going right through into the nares. Wounds caused by biting are 

 commonest on the back of the neck and body. The eyes, also, are commonly injured: 

 in fighting, the canine tooth of one scratches the surface of the eyeball of the other 

 sufficiently to cause an inflammation leading to a conjunctivitis. When the wound 

 heals the conjunctiva becomes white and opaque. One-eyed seals with this injury are 

 to be seen in all the big rookeries. Sometimes the eyes are completely torn out. It is 

 noticeable that the body wounds do not heal readily and nearly always suppurate badly. 

 This, in the opinion of the writer, is due to the dirty state of the rookeries and the 

 indifl^erence that the seal have to wallowing in filth. 



The impression one gets from watching the elephant seal is that they would be 

 extremely dangerous if they could move with any degree of agility on the land : it is 

 only their cumbersome unwieldiness that makes them harmless. 



Breeding Habits. The bulls are peculiarly jealous if they are disturbed in the rookery. 

 When they return to their harem, after their warlike demonstration to the intruder, 

 they invariably start pairing with their cows. In the large harems the bachelor bulls 

 on the edges poach the outlying cows while the harem bull's attention is engaged with 

 another cow. But the harem bull keeps a watchful eye on them and does not leave 

 them long in peace as soon as he has finished with his own cow, though until he has. 



