Elephant Seals of Guadalitpe Island 



deep grooves. There is little indication of the 

 proboscis in the half-grown male. Under excite- 

 ment both female and young extend the nose into 

 a sharply pointed tip. 



Nothing was found in the stomach of the ele- 

 phant seal that would serve to indicate the nature 

 of its food; in fact, we never found anything but 

 a handful of sand. Our captive elephant seals re- 

 fused to eat fresh fish during the two days' voyage 

 to San Diego, and took no food for more than a 

 week after their journey overland. In the New 

 York Aquarium they have subsisted entirely on 

 fresh fish cut into moderate-sized pieces, but they 

 have greatly preferred fish that was alive. Live 

 crabs and bits of seaweed placed in the pool always 

 remained untouched. Like the fur seal, they doubt- 

 less feed on live squid, but they refused the dead 

 squid we took pains to procure for them. 



The yearling elephant seal is somewhat heavier 

 and longer than the nursing pup, but it is propor- 

 tionately slender, is brownish-gray in color, and 

 has longer whiskers. As I have said, the nursing 

 pup is black, and its length is about four feet; it is 

 so remarkably fat as to be virtually unable to move, 

 while the yearling is fairly active. None of the 

 six yearlings brought to the New York Aquarium 

 exceeded five feet in length, their weights varying 



417 



