222 CARNIVORA PINNIPEDIA. 



the females they secure. As the males who have suc- 

 ceeded in securing stations have from six to fifteen females 

 and in some cases even a larger number each, to protect 

 from those who, having failed in the struggle for part- 

 ners, are waiting close at hand in the rear of the colony 

 to take advantage of any unguarded moment to raid the 

 harems of their successful rivals, the preservation of the 

 stations requires constant .vigilance on the part of the 

 males in possession of them. They are compelled to remain 

 continually on the ground during the entire breeding 

 season, undergoing an unbroken fast of about three 

 months' duration, and becoming in consequence weak and 

 emaciated to the last degree and losing half their weight 

 before they return to the water. Some of the males show 

 wonderful strength and courage in the defense of their 

 homes and families. The fighting is mostly done with the 

 mouth ; the opponents seizing each other with their teeth, 

 and clenching the jaws, so the sharp incisors tear deep 

 gutters in the skin and blubber, and shred the flippers 

 into ribbons. 



The females are as gentle as the males are truculent. 

 They remain for a time after their arrival continuously 

 at the stations of their lords, but as they go to the sea at 

 frequent intervals for food, they do not spend such a long, 

 unbroken period on the shore. 



The Sea Lions are less systematic and exacting in the 

 formation and protection of their families than the Sea 

 Bears; allowing their consorts to move more freely from 

 place to place, and to go to the shore accompanied by 

 their young to disport themselves in the surf. 



On the Pribilov Islands, the Sea Lions come ashore, and 

 produce their young, a month earlier than the Sea Bears. 



With the exception of the California species, the gen- 

 eral color of all Sea Lions is a reddish brown showing 

 darkest at birth, and becoming gradually lighter with age. 



Sea Bears are black, or nearly so, when born ; but they 

 become lighter as they grow older, through an abundant 

 mixture of greyish hairs varying, in the different spe- 

 cies, from a whitish to a yellowish grey. The adults, of 

 the southern species, are generally much greyer than the 

 northern representatives of the family, and there is also 

 considerable individual variation of color, in all the spe- 

 cies, due to age, sex and season. 



