88 REPORT OF BRITISH COMMISSIONERS. 



at a birth; while on the Austialiaii coast it is said that the female gen- 

 erally brings forth a single pup, sometimes two.* 



(I.) — Distances to which Seals go from the Breeding Islands in search of 

 Food, and Times of Feeding. 



303. The feeding habits of the seals, and the distances to which seals 

 engaged in breeding on the islands may be supposed to go for food, as 

 well as the period of the breeding season at which excursions in search 

 of food begin to be made, are important because of their direct bearing 

 on the limits of protection which might approjiriately be accorded 

 about the islands at the breeding season. 



304. The full-grown bulls, or beachmasters, holding stations on the 

 rookery-grounds, undoubtedly, in the majority of cases — if not inva- 

 riably — remain on duty throughout the breeding season and to the 

 close of the rutting period without seeking food. The young again, 

 born in any ])articular season, are not weaned, or not fully weaned, nor 

 do they, muler normal circumstances, leave the immediate vicinity of 

 the shores till the time of their final departure. 



305. It is thus only the classes of bachelor and female seals that can, 

 under any circumstances, be found leaving the islands in search of food 

 during the breeding season. Of the females, the yearlings associate 

 with the ])achelors. Some of the two-year-olds may seek the vicinity 

 of the rookery-grounds for the purpose of meeting the males, but prob- 

 ably they do not long remain there, while it is believed that most of 

 them are covered at sea. Barren females, again, whether without 

 young from jige, from an insufficiency of males, or inefficient service, 

 are not in any way permanently attached to the islands at this time. 



300. The remaining — and, at the time in question, most important — 

 class is that of the breeding females. These, some time after the birth 

 of the young and the subsequent copulation with the male, begin to 

 leave tlie rookery-ground and seek the water. This they are able to do 

 because of the lessened interest of the beachmasters in them, and more 

 particularly after many of the beachmasters themselves begin to leave 

 their stands. Thus, by about the middle of August, probably only 

 one-half of the females, or even less, are to be seen at any one time on 

 the rookeries. Snegiloff, the native foreman in charge of the rookeries 

 on Behring Island, expressed the opinion that the females first leave 

 their young and begin to frequent the water about a month after the 

 birth of the young. Bryant says about six weeks.t Other authorities 

 are less definite on this point, but, according to observations made by 

 ourselves, the mothers and young were present on the Pribylotf rook- 

 eries in approximately equal numbers in the last days of July, while, on 

 the same rookeries, in the third week of August, the young largely out- 

 numbered the mothers present at any one time, and, in so far as could 

 be ascertained by observation, the females were disporting themselves 

 in the sea off the fronts of the rookeries. 



307. It is very generally assumed that the female, on thus beginning 

 to leave the rookery-ground, at once resumes her habit of engaging in 

 the active quest for food, and though this would ajtpear to be only 

 natural, particularly in view of the extra drain produced by the demands 

 of the young, it must be remembered that, with scarcely any exception, 

 the stomachs of even the bachelor seals killed upon the islands are found 



* "Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria," by Sir F. McCoy, F. R. S., Decade 

 VIII, p. 9. 



t Seuate, Ex. Doc. No. 32, 4l8t Congress, 2nd Session, p. 5. 



