53 



PUP STATISTICS — SUMMARY. 



Eookery. 



ST. PAUL ISLAND. 



Kitovl 



Liikauin 



Lagoon 



Tolstoi 



Zapadni 



Little Zapadni. . 

 Zapadui Keet'. . . 



Gorbatch 



Ardiguen 



Reef 



Sivutcli Rock . . . 



Polovina 



Little Polovina. 



Vo.stochiii 



Morjovi 



Total 

 born. 



Total 



Addition of 20 per cent for loss between August 



and ( )(• tober counts 



Starving pups to be added as starved 



Addition for bodies taken for dissection 



Dead. 



August, t October 



123,048 



109 

 205 



78 



1,895 



3,095 



134 



104 



712 



2 



9.10 



50 



635 



47 



1,808 



485 



C09 

 579 

 316 



2,449 



4,395 

 693 

 327 



1,878 

 78 



2,786 

 284 



1, 555 

 119 



3,313 

 950 



10, 309 20, 331 



Starved. 



500 

 374 

 238 

 554 



1,300 

 559 

 223 



1,166 

 76 



1,836 



234 



920 



72 



1,525 

 445 



Starving. 



42 



27 



51 



191 



154 



64. 



18 



126 



8 



30O 



31 



55 



22 



329 



109 



10, 022 



2,061 



1,527 



150 



1,527 



Total starved 



ST. GEORGE ISLAND. 



Nortli 



Staraya Artil. 



Zapadni 



East 



Little East . . . 



6,809 

 2,269 

 5,509 



4,086 

 1, 350 



Total 



Starving pups added as starved. . 



Total 



Grand total for botb i.sland.s 



20, 023 



143,071 



13, 760 



259 

 135 

 199 

 112 

 31 



11, 045 



145 



194 



527 



15 



16 



897 



21, 228 



762 

 253 

 617 

 457 

 151 



2,240 

 19 



2,259 



16, 019 



1,546 



* The figures herein given for starved pups on the rookeries of St. George are estimates based upon 

 the conditions of St. Paul. 



STARVED PUPS OX MEPNI. 



It has been denied that the rookeries of the Commander Islands show a corre- 

 sponding mortality due to starvation. On the rookeries at fillinka on Medni Island 

 1 found the conditions even worse than on St. Paul. The pelaoic sealing is contin- 

 ued through .luly on the Knssian side, and a larger percentage of the total number 

 of feniiiles is destroyed. The following are my field notes on the subject: 



"An(luH ;.-'.). — Zapadni Rookery, of Medni Islantl, is a stretch of coarse shingle and 

 rounded rocks on a sloping beach at the foot of very high clifts. In the sea are large 

 rocks, on which the female seals are now mostly gathered. On the shore are a small 

 pod of females and a number of groups of pui)s. No males, young or old, ajipear. 



"In the lirst little pod of 20 pups, (i are evidently starving; 8 recently starved; 

 dead ones lie there, and tiiere are 4 dead oues of older date, but also emaciated. 



"Zapadni Kookery seems not much larger than Little Polavina, of St. Paul. On 

 the rookery ground are 11 fresh-starved ])ups, besides 14 which seem, some of them 

 at least, to have l)een starved, but which are now largely decomposed. 



"There are many carcasses of dead seals on the beach nearly devoured, and dense 

 swarms of small flesh Hies al)Ound, their maggots destroying a dead pup or dead seal 

 carcass very quickly. Evidently of the very earliest pups only fragments remain. 

 The air seems drier antl warmer than on St. Paul, and a dead i)up remains fresh only 

 for a short time. Many whiih have not been more than a week dead have been 

 reduced ti) skeletons and hair. 



"A pod of 46 pups on shore is examined. As a whole they seem much less active 

 than Pribilof pups, smaller, sleepier, and more stupid. Seventeen of the number are 

 evidently starving. Some look plump, but it is probable that nearly all of these 

 land ])ups are really starving; the large and well-fed oues have taken to the water. 



"Other pods show similar characteristics. In a group of some 200 about 80 are 

 evidently starving. This is not a count, but a rough guess. The percentage in 

 general holds for all groups examined. 



