60 COMPARATIVE ANATOMY OF 



of those we killed we found squid (various kinds of 

 sepia) and many fungi." It would hence appear they 

 ire omnivorous. But to proceed, it is a fact that 

 many of them feed voraciously, and acquire an im- 

 mense covering of blubber, with which they come 

 loaded to shore. The period occupied by the pro- 

 cesses of parturition and lactation is rarely stated at 

 less than six weeks or two months, and is often said 

 to be twice as long. Now, one of the circum- 

 stances on which we would insist is this, that 

 many observers affirm that during the whole of 

 this period they live without taking any sort of 

 'nourishment. The words of the famous Alexander 

 Selkirk, as reported by Wood-Rogers, are these: 

 " Towards the end of the month of June these 

 animals come on shore to bring forth their young, 

 and remain to the end of September without stirring 

 from the spot, and without taking any apparent 

 kind of nourishment."* Captain Weddell's statement 

 is still more striking : " The males come ashore 

 about the end of August and beginning of Septem- 

 ber. As they live while on shore entirely without 

 food, they become very lean by the middle of De- 

 cember ;"f and Perori says, that during the period 

 in question no member of the family either eats, or 

 goes to sea.J This opinion might be further corro- 

 borated by the statements of Forster, and of other 

 respectable observers : but the proposition that 



* See Kerr's Coll. of Voyages. 



t Lib. supra cit. p. 153. 



| Voy. aux Ter. Austr. t. ii. 40. 



