Till! KAKKD SI'.AI.S: II. A HITS A M > IMS TIM 111' HUN 37 



19. THE SEA LIONS AND FUR SEALS IN GENERAL. 



in Mi UTKKS. The largest species of Hi,- Otaries (genera Olaria and Ktu,.< toping) 

 an' Hair Seals, while iln- smallest genera Ctilldrliimix ;nn\ Arctocepltaluii) an- Fur Seals; but the 

 species nt Xnlupliiix, although Hair Seals. MIC ititrrmriliate in si/.e between the other Hair Seals and 

 the Fur Seals. All ihe Hair Seals have coarse, hard, still 1 hair, varying in length with ago and 

 .season, and are wholly without soft underfill-. All the Fur Seals have an abundant soft, silky 

 underfill-, giving to the skins of the females and younger males great value as articles of coiiiiiieife. 

 The longer, eoarser overhair varies in length and abundance with season anil age. All the Hair 

 Seals are \cllowish or reddish liruwn (in Xalophun sometimes brownish-black), generally darkest 

 when young, and becoming lighter with age, and also in the same individuals toward ihe molting 

 season. There is also considerable range of individual variation in representatives of the same 

 species, so that co. oration alone fails to afford satisfactory diagnostic eharacteis. All the Fur Seals 

 are black when \oung, but they become lighter with age, through an abundant admixture of grayish 

 hairs which vary from yellowish gray to whitish-gray. The southern Fur Seals are generally, when 

 adult, much grayer than the northern. There is hence a wide range of color variation with age in 

 the same species, as there is also among conspeciflc individuals of the same sex and age. While 

 .some have the breast and sides pale yellowish-gray, others have these parts strongly rufous, the 

 general tint also showing to some extent these differences. 



There is also a wonderful disparity in size between the sexes, the weight of the adult males 

 being generally three to iive times that of the adult females of the same species. There are also 

 very great differences in the form of the skull, especially iu respect to the development of crests 

 and protuberances for muscular attachment, these being only slightly developed in females and 

 enormously so in the males. With such remarkable variations in color and cranial characters, 

 dependent upon age and sex, it is not a matter of snrpr se that many nominal species have arisen 

 through a misappreciation of the real significance of these differences. 



HABITS. The Eared Seals show also a remarkable resemblance in their gregarious and iw'lyg- 

 ainous habits. All the species, wherever occurring, like the Walruses and Sea Elephants, resort 

 in great numbers to particular breeding stations, which, in sealers' parlance, have acquired I lie 

 strangely inappropriate name of ''rookeries." The older males arrive first at the breeding grounds, 

 where they immediately select their stations and await the arrival of the females. They keep up a 

 perpetual warfare for their favorite sites, and afterward in defense of their harems. The number 

 of females acquired by the successful males varies from a dozen to fifteen or more, which they guard 

 with the utmost jealousy might being with them the law of right. The strongest males are nat- 

 urally the most successful in gathering about them large harems. The males, during the breeding 

 season, remain wholly on land, and they will sutler death rather than leave their chosen spot. They 

 thus sustain, for a period of several weeks, an uninterrupted fast. They arrive at the breeding 

 .stations fat and vigorous, and leave them weak and emaciated, having been nourished through 

 their long period of f.istiug wholly by the fat of their own bodies. The females remain uninter- 

 ruptedly on land for a much shorter period, but for a considerable time after their arrival do not 

 leave the harems. The detailed account given a century ago by Steller, and recently con firmed by 

 Hi \ant and Klliott, ol the habits of the northern Fur and Hair Seals during the breeding season, 

 is well known to apply, in gieater or less detail, to nearly all the species of the family, and 

 presumably to all. As the observations by Messrs. Elliott and Bryant are pioentcd later in this 

 work at length, it is unnecessary to give further details in the present connection. 



GEOUI: u-iiiCAL DISTRIBUTION. The most striking fact in respect to the distribution of the 

 <Hnrii<lir is their entire absence from the waters of the North Atlantic. 



