ELEPHANT SEAL: GROWTH AND FEEDING 241 



beaches away from the harems. At the end of the second year the cows are impregnated, 

 being then from 7I to Sh ft. long. They continue growing after this and by the time 

 that they are three years old, when they have their first pups, they are 9 to 10 ft. in 

 length. The bulls at the end of their second year are 12 to 14 ft. long and have only a 

 slight development of the proboscis. At this age they would breed, were they not kept 

 away from the harems by the older and stronger bulls. After this age they grow 

 gradually, up to 18 or 20 ft. long, with increasing girth and development of the proboscis 

 (Plate XXIII, fig. 2). The writer believes that the bulls go on growing at least until 

 they are five years old but he has no definite data to support this opinion. 



Food. The writer has examined the stomachs of a large series of elephant seal to 

 ascertain what their food is. The stomachs contain a large quantity — up to two gallons — 

 of yellow watery fluid, usually pale but sometimes deep in colour, and several pounds 

 of sand and shingle. In addition all the stomachs are heavily infected with nematode 

 worms. In 35 per cent of the stomachs examined cephalopod beaks^, some of large 

 size, were found, though no soft parts were seen, and this is not to be wondered at, 

 as all these specimens were killed in the rookeries where they had been fasting. No 

 trace of any other food was found. Wilson, in the Report of the National Antarctic 

 Expedition of 1901-1904, stated that he found no food in the stomachs of his specimens, 

 but pointed out that the diet probably consisted of cephalopods, from a consideration 

 of the dentition. It is probable that cephalopods are the sole food of the animal, and 

 when one considers the number of seals on South Georgia and the large amount of 

 food that they must consume to get so well covered with blubber, one realizes that 

 the waters surrounding the island must be teeming with these molluscs. That this is 

 so is also shown by an examination of the stomachs of the Albatross, Mollymauks, 

 Cape Hens and Macaroni Penguins from the same locality, all of which are full of squid 

 beaks. The squid are certainly there, and at times, if not always, near the surface, though 

 no naturalist has yet invented gear which will catch them and prove their presence 

 directly. 



The writer has been unable to ascertain how the sand and shingle gets introduced 

 into the stomachs of the elephant seal. It is most probable that the sand is deliberately 

 swallowed, as it can be taken as certain that it is not swallowed with the food. A small 

 amount may be swallowed accidentally when the seal are in the rookeries, but this 

 would not account for such large quantities. Other species of seal are known constantly 

 to have in their stomachs stones which are deliberately swallowed, so it is a fair assump- 

 tion that the elephant seal get theirs in the same way, though no actual instance of the 

 deliberate swallowing of sand and shingle has been observed. Sand was not only found 

 in the stomachs of the adults, but also in the stomach of a young one that had only 

 just completed the coat change and had not yet left the beach. Thus, if it is swallowed 

 deliberately, the habit is a well-established instinct, since this young one had not yet 



^ Mr G. C. Robson has kindly examined these beaks and is of the opinion that they belong to a species 

 of the family Architeuthidae. Any more precise identification is unfortunately impossible. 



