78 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



fore flippers. In this niannor she lironglit it tliroiigh sever.al pods of pups and groups of females down 

 to .an old Rikatcli. a distance i>f fully l.W feet, where she lies down, but I enn not see whether sIk^ is 

 nursing the l>up, as she is down in a hollow. I see, however, that the )iup tries to escape — probably 

 wants to go back to play — but is brought back every time. 



Souu', of these wet niatki will stop several minutes in front of four or live pups and nose them 

 repeatedly, as if in doubt, before they go aw.ay. * * • 



There is a remarkable individual variation in the voice of tlie females. 



At 1 o'c'lock p. in., I moved to the iiorthciii end of tlie rookery- Among tlie notes 

 written down there 1 lind the following: 



The pups were very active, running to and fro, but I could not discover that any of them went 

 very far away from where I saw them first. On the other hand, females hauling out of the water 

 were constantly traveling all over the rookery, calling and bleating. 



Later in the .season similar observations were made on the little South llookery, 

 Bering Island (August 17, 1805). The notes then written down also contain some 

 reflections of a general nature upon the question. It is hardly necessary to add that 

 upon further reflection I still adhere to the opinion tlien expressed — an opinion which 

 may jiossibly have some weight, written as it was in plain view of the seals it refers 

 to. That part of my diary reads as follows: 



I was able to get very close to the grounds, which were occupied by motlicrs and pups only. A 

 good many of the latter were in the water, but there was also quite a Large pod of smaller ]iupa at 

 the posterior edge of the herd [near the place where I was watching]. I was again impressed, .as 

 before on Kishotchnaya, by the .action of the females and pups when the former haul up from the 

 water aud go in search of the young to nurse it. The ground is here so small that it is a compara- 

 tively easy task for the mother to lind its young, and I consequently observed severiil dripping- wet 

 cows nursing pups. The mother in coming out of the water made straight for the pod of pups and 

 the usual performance of pups rushing up and, upon being nosed at critically, refused, whereupon her 

 search continued, was gone through. 



.So much is absolutely certain, that the females do not nurse the pups promiscnonsly. I am 

 thoroughly convinced by what I have seen that the mother wanders considerable distances and spends 

 much time in searching for her own individual child. Whether a mother who had searched in vain 

 for a long time, and whose milk was pressing her very strongly, might not finally give in to the impor- 

 tunities of a particularly hungry pup is a question which it will probably never be possilile to answer 

 definitely, but I think such cases [if they occur] are the exceptions; the rule is certainly the reverse. 



To the above I need add but little by way of argument. Persons who reject it on 

 ])urely theoretical grounds have adduced much testimony to show how some other 

 animals do not discriminate between their own young and those of other mothers, but 

 anyone who has studied the habits of wild animals will know how utterly futile such 

 an argument is, and how absurd it is to conclude from one si)ecies what are the 

 liabits of another. 



I may finally, however, call attention to the fact that the opinion here held has of 

 late received strong confirmation. I refer to the thousand of starving pups of late 

 years found on the rookeries; for if the females were willing to nurse the pups of other 

 mothers as well as theii" own there would seem to be no reason at all why any pups 

 should starve to death. 



MORTALITY OF PUPS. 



The above reflection leads me to the question of the mortality of pups on the 

 rookeries. With the reports of the appalling loss of pups on the Pribylof Islands 

 fresh in my mind, one of the first inquiries I made on Bering Island, upon my arrival, 

 naturally was whether any unusual mortality had been observed there. 



