2494 The Zoologist— March, 1871. 



effort to get out of the way : I picked up many of them in my 

 hands : after a brief struggle the little captive would yield, and 

 seemed to fear no further harm. Hundreds slept so soundly that 

 I rolled them over before they could be induced to open their great 

 baby-eyes ; while thousands slept and basked on the shore, an 

 equal number floated lazily in the water, or dipped and dived 

 about in sport. The mother seals were more timid than their 

 young, but seemed less alarmed than surprised at my approach ; 

 the look of startled inquiry was so human and feminine, nay lady- 

 like, that I felt as an intruder on the privacy of the nursery. I 

 could not discern any individual claim set up by the mother for 

 any particular little one, but like a great socialistic community, 

 maternal love seemed to be joint-stock property, and each infant 

 communist had a mother in every adult female. The fathers of 

 the great family appeared in point of numbers to be largely in the 

 minority, counting, as I judged, not the hundredth part of the adult 

 animals. A few bearded, growling old fellows tumbled about in 

 the water, yelling and howling in a most threatening manner, and 

 approaching within a few feet of where I stood : a pebble tossed 

 at one of them, however, would be answered by a plunge beneath 

 the surface and reappearance at a safer distance. I witnessed an 

 unexpected act of tenderness on the part of one of the largest and 

 most boisterous old thrcatcners for a little young one that seemed 

 to claim him for papa : he was blowing and screaming at me fear- 

 fully, when a young one at my feet bustled into the water, glided 

 off to the old one, and child-like placed its mouth up to his : the 

 old savage ceased his noise, returning the caress, and seemed for 

 several seconds to forget his wrath at the unwelcome intruder. 

 * * * I will observe here that the males are fully four times as 

 large as the females." — P. 150. 



Dr. Veatch proceeds to discuss the species to which the Cali- 

 fornian sea-lion should be assigned, and gives reasons for believing 

 that it has not as yet been satisfactorily identified with any 

 described species. 



J. H. GURNEY. 



Marldon, Totnes, Jan. 25, 1871. 



