AN ALLEGED CAUSE OF DECREASE. 75 



and a photograph taken by Mr. Stanley-Brown Surplus of virile 



males. 



in 1892, at the height of the breeding season, 

 shows a number of vigorous bulls located on the 

 breeding grounds unable to obtain consorts. 1 On size of harems 

 July 19, 1892, Professor B. W. Evermann, of the* 1892 ' 

 United States Fish Commission, a well-known 

 authority on subjects of natural history, counted 

 the number of bulls, cows, and pups on a section 

 of Lukannon Rookery, St. Paul Island, and the re- 

 sult was as follows: 13 bulls, 90 cows, and 211 

 pups. 2 If each cow in a harem was represented 

 by a pup, the average number to a bull would 

 be 15, certainly not an excessive number even 

 according to the Report. 



The Commissioners also rely on a newspaper Alleged sum- 

 mary of a report 

 extract, which purports to be a summary of a re- i>y *h. w. Elliott 



11 J in 1890. 



port made by Mr. Henry W. Elliott in 1890 to the 

 Secretary of the Treasury, to establish several 

 alleged facts (Sec. 832). One of these state- 

 ments in this alleged summary (Sec. 433) is that 

 there were 250,000 barren females on the Pribi- 

 lof Islands in 1890 (Sec. 832, p. 40). This is 

 cited by the Commissioners to show the lack of 

 virile males on the rookeries in that year. An 

 examination of the extract as published in volume 



1 J. Stanley Brown, post p. 386. 



2 B. W. Evermann, post p. 264. 



