HOOKER'S SEA-LION. 65 



December. Soon after the cows appear, and on landing give birth to the young, each 

 male securing a harem of ten to twenty cows, and protecting the mothers and young 

 pups. The rutting season is in January, after which the males leave the mothers to 

 bring up the young until May, when they all leave the coast for the winter." 



It will be seen at once that this account does not agree with our observa- 

 tions. There is no doubt that the males when we were there in the third week 

 of March had not left the rookery, neither is there any doubt that the young one 

 which we procured had died very shortly after birth, not more than the day before 

 we found it, and as there was but one other small pup upon the beach, it was natural 

 that we should have surmised that they were both either very early arrivals or very 

 late, with a probability of the latter, as they were born in the latter end of March ; 

 moreover, the fights that we saw between the males, as well as the definite collection 

 of so many harems around them, led us to think that the breeding season might be in 

 progress, perhaps later in the Auckland Islands than on the west coast of New Zealand, 

 where Sir James Hector made his observations, many years ago. In his note he goes 

 on to say that " the mode of life of the hair seals has been much altered since 1863, 

 when I made my first observations, and I believe that the New Zealand Hair Seals 

 (Protoarctus hookeri) have now become much more solitary, and that they will soon 

 become extinct." 



While it is quite possible that the colonies might be broken up to some 

 extent, it is hardly likely that they could have changed the month in which the young 

 were to be born. As Sir James Hector's observations are the result of a longer 

 experience and observation than our own, we can only think that the pups we saw 

 were born a month or two later than is usually the case, and that the rest of the 

 young perhaps had gone to sea. 



The food of Hooker's Sea-lion in March appeared to consist exclusively of a 

 large red crab. No doubt the diet varies from one season to another, for it is hardly 

 probable that they would find the same crustaceans while they lived mainly on 

 shore and visited only shallow water that they would find while living a more pelagic 

 life during the winter months. Fish would then, no doubt, form a considerable 

 proportion of their food. 



The large red Auckland Island crab is known as Nectocarcinus antarcticus, 

 and is a shallow water form. We know that the sea-lions eat them in large 

 numbers, because we found evidence of it everywhere along the shore and in the bush. 

 The Sea-lions, having satisfied themselves *at sea, come in shore, and make their way 

 into the bush, where, amidst the rank growth of scrub and tussac grass, they sleep, 

 and sooner or later regurgitate a bolus composed of the undigested remnants of the 

 crabs, whose legs and shells are rolled into a mass the size and shape of a hen's egg. 



We saw the Sea-lions upon occasions chasing such birds as Cormorants, and 

 probably anything that would be food to an ordinary carnivorous appetite would be 

 food also to them. 



