NATURAL HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA 



visiting the shallow waters near by, for fear lest 

 during their absence other males may interfere 

 with their family arrangements. When they at 

 last venture to leave their family for short periods 

 in order to obtain food, they are weak and emaciated. 



The diet of these seals consists entirely of fish 

 mostly small ones. They are large animals, and 

 consequently consume great quantities of the finny 

 tribe, which they seem to be able to capture with 

 comparative ease. 



The male Sea Lions arrive at maturity in about 

 three years. These males, with increasing years, 

 grow larger and more powerful, and develop a 

 mane of long coarse hairs all round the neck, which 

 is a good protection against the teeth of rivals. 

 The female seals have no trace of a mane. 



The canine teeth of the old male seals are large 

 and strong. These are efficient weapons, backed 

 up by the powerful muscles of the jaws, acting 

 in conjunction with the great masses of strong 

 muscular fibre on the neck, chest, and shoulders. 



The teeth of the cubs are well developed and 

 sharp at an early age. The cubs are beautiful 

 little creatures with big black luminous eyes. They 

 have a loud and plaintive cry like that of a kid in 

 distress, but somewhat shriller. I kept several 

 Sea Lion cubs alive at the Port Elizabeth Museum 

 for a couple of weeks, and taught them to take milk 

 from a baby's sucking bottle. For the first three 

 or four days their bleating cries were deafening. 

 1 86 



