158 SEAL LIFE ON THE PRIBlLOF ISLANDS. 



Any statement to the effect that the occasional occurrence of large 

 harems indicates a decrease in the available number of virile males, and 

 hence deterioration of the rookeries, should be received with great 

 caution if not entirely ignored. The bulls play only a secondary part in 

 the formation of harems. It is the cow which takes the initiative. She 

 is in the water beyond the reach or control of the male and can select 

 her own point of landing. Her manner on coming ashore is readily 

 distinguished from that of the young males which continuously play 

 along the sea margin of the breeding grounds. She comes out of the 

 water, carefully noses or smells the rocks here or there like a dog, and 

 then makes her way to the bull of her own selecting. In this incipient 

 stage of her career on shore there is but little interference on the part 

 of the male, but once well away from the water and near the bull she 

 has chosen, he approaches her, manifests his pleasure, and greetings are 

 exchanged. She then joins the other cows and as soon as dry lies down 

 and goes comfortably to sleep. I have seen this selective power exer- 

 cised repeatedly, and the result is that one bull will be especially favored 

 while those within 15 or 20 feet will be ignored. 



The size of the harems, therefore, has of itself but little to do with 

 the question of lack of virile males, but indicates only the selective 

 power of the females. If 100 bulls represented the necessary supply of 

 virile males we might, by reason of this fact, find 10 bulls with very 

 large harems, 10 with still less, 50 with a reason able number, 20 with a 

 few, and 10 with none. An onlooker would not, therefore, be justified 

 in stating that by reason of these few large harems there is a lack of 

 virile males. 



In the very nature of things it seems impossible that any method 

 other than this one of selection on the part of the female could ever 

 have existed. 



Large harems are frequently due to topographic conditions, the con- 

 figuration of the land being such that the females can only reach the 

 breeding grounds through narrow passageways between the rocks, and 

 around the terminations of which they collect. 



Harems often coalesce; then boundaries become indefinite, and when 

 their size and position make them too large for control, cows pass to the 

 rear and are appropriated by the bulls there. 



When once the female is located, the bull exercises rigid control and 

 permits no leaving of the lands until she has been served. I never saw 

 a harem so large that the vigilance of the bull in this respect was ever 

 relaxed. His consorts may escape to another harem, but they are never 

 permitted to go to sea until an inspection convinces the bull that they are 

 entitled to do so. No intelligent observer would be so bold as to assert 

 that during the season of 1892 there was not an abundance of males of 

 complete virility, despite the occurrence of occasional large harems. 

 The accompanying photographs 1 show that even at the height of the sea- 

 son, and just previous to the disintegration of the breeding grounds, 

 there were un supplied with cows old males which had taken their stand 

 and from which I was unable to drive them with stones. 



I should have been extremely glad to have been able to note a great 

 many more of these large harems, but the work of the pelagic hunter 

 among the females has been so effective that the average size of the 

 harems is growing smaller and smaller, while the number of the idle 

 bulls is steadily increasing. The rookeries of the Pribilof Islands will 

 never be destroyed by superabundance of large harems. 



1 Not furnished. 



