486 FAMILY PHOCID^. 



such various names as Sea-dogs, Sea-calves, Sea-wolves, etc. 

 Some have a barking note, others a kind of tender bleat, or a 

 cry more or less resembling that of a child. The cry of the 

 young is usually more or less pathetic, while that of the adults 

 is heavier and hoarser. None appear to produce the loud bark- 

 ing or roaring so characteristic of most of the Sea-Lions and 

 Sea-Bears. 



FOOD. 



The food of Seals is known to consist largely of fish, but some 

 of the species are believed to subsist mainly upon mollusks and 

 crustaceans, particularly the latter. Malmgren states explicitly 

 that this is the food of the Rough and Bearded Seals, as he has 

 found by an examination of their stomachs. The Harbor and 

 Greenland Seals are supposed to subsist almost exclusively upon 

 fish, of which they destroy enormous quantities. Mr. Carroll 

 estimates that not less than three millions to four millions of 

 Seals annually congregate around the island of Newfoundland, 

 remaining there for a period of not less than one hundred and 

 twenty days. Allowing that each Seal consumes only one cod- 

 fish a day, they would each destroy during this interval not less 

 than a quintal of fish, making in the aggregate some three mil- 

 lions to four millions of quintals of codfish killed by Seals during 

 about one-third of the year. Startling as this may seem, it is 

 unquestionably a low estimate. Indeed, the destruction of these 

 fish by Seals is believed to account, in part at least, for the a short 

 catch" of codfish at the various fishing stations around the 

 island. They, however, do not restrict themselves to codfish, 

 but doubtless vary their fare as circumstances may favor, they 

 being known to wage a furious warfare upon the white-fish. 

 As long as white-fish are " in with the land," in passing down 

 from the Labrador coast, " so sure will Seals of every descrip- 

 tion be there." Late in autumn the white-fish always pass 

 through the Straits of Belle Isle, followed by " all kinds of Seals 

 known to ice-hunters." * 



Mr. Eobert Brown states that all of the different species of 

 Seals "live on the same description of food, varying this at 

 different times of the year and according to the relative abun- 

 dance or otherwise of that article in different portions of the 

 Arctic seas. The great staple of food, however, consists of 

 various species of Crustacea which swarm in the northern seas. 

 * Carroll, Seal and Herring Fisheries of Newfoundland, 1873, p. 18. 



