60 EDWARD A. WILSON. 



Note on Seals, Plate IV. ; the position and outline of the adult female is taken from a photograph 

 supplied to me by Mr. McGregor Wright, of Wellington, N.Z., who happened to visit the 

 Auckland Islands during our stay there, and kindly gave me permission to use his photo- 

 graphs in this publication. See also figs. 33 and 34, p. 64. 



ON her homeward journey from the Antarctic to New Zealand, the ' Discovery ' was 

 anchored for a fortnight (March 15th to 29th, 1904) in Laurie Harbour, at the north- 

 eastern end of the Auckland main island. This stay brought us in touch with Hooker's 

 Sea-lion ^Arctocephalus hookeri), which we found to be abundant in our neighbourhood, 

 a large number frequenting a stretch of sandy shore about half a mile long on the 

 southern side of Enderby Island, which lies just outside and to the north of Laurie 

 Harbour. In Laurie Harbour itself we were visited by adult females and young adult 

 males, but the oldest and largest males were only to be seen on the sandy beach of 

 Enderby Island, and an account of our visit to it will convey the greater part of our 

 observations concerning the habits of the animal. 



It may first, however, be stated that the exact range of Hooker's Sea-lion has not 

 been very satisfactorily determined. There is much doubt as to the propriety of con- 

 sidering the variously named species of Arctocephalus as distinct, and until this matter is 

 cleared up it is almost impossible to say where Arctocephalus hookeri has or has not been 

 found. Gray reports it from the Falkland Islands and Cape Horn, and probably the 

 south coast of Australia. It is also said to frequent the west coast of New Zealand, Bass 

 Strait, and the west coast of Tasmania (Sir James Hector). It quite certainly occurs 

 abundantly on the shores of the Auckland Islands ; and the sandy beach of Enderby 

 Island seems to provide the requirements of a breeding " rookery," since we there found 

 old males with their harems around them, as well as two young ones quite recently 

 born. Along the whole length of this sandy beach were these Sea-lions, the majority 

 young males and females ; but there were also about twenty full grown and very large 

 dark brown bulls with thick manes of short, rough and curly hair (figs. 31 and 

 32, p. 60). 



Wherever we went into the bush which covered the island, even half a mile in- 

 shore, in the thickest scrub or amongst the mounds of tussac grass, often half-way 

 up a quite considerable hill, we found ourselves confronted by half awakened Sea-lions. 

 In the scrub adjoining this sandy beach we discovered a very young one, dead, but 

 quite fresh. This was a particularly interesting specimen,* because it had just 

 commenced shedding the reddish-brown hair in which it was born. From nose to tail 

 its skin measures 42 inches. The hind flippers extended behind add another 8 inches 

 to its length, and the fore flippers are 9 inches long. The bright chestnut-red hair 

 which covers it is fine in texture, straight and abundant, each hair measuring f inch 

 (17 to 18 mm.) in length. The ventral surface is as red and as dark as the dorsal, but 

 the shoulders and the lower part of the back and flanks are of a decidedly darker shade 



* There is, in the B. M. Coll., a similar skin of Arctoceplialuz liookeri of about the same age, showing 

 exceedingly well the pale crown, mentioned on p. 61 ; but the skin has no history. 



