110 CARNIVORES. 
circumstance he assures me of is, that in the stomach of every one he has examined, 
with the single exception of a young animal, there existed a quantity of pebbles. 
The amount varied in individuals from a few to many.” 
The females give birth to a single young one about the end of 
the year, equivalent to our midsummer. During the pairing season, 
which is in February and March, pitched battles occur between the males, during 
which the females look quietly on. At such times the males are savage; and if 
attacked will stand their ground. The old males generally utter a low kind of 
growl, but in the breeding-season this is prolonged into a loud, voluminous, inter- 
rupted roar. The young utter a kind of bleating cry. From July to November 
these seals migrate southwards from the Falklands. In colour the young are of a 
deep chocolate, but paler after the first year; the old males being of a rich brown 
tint, and the females greyer; while at all ages, and in both sexes, the flippers are 
of a darker hue than the body. 
Breeding. 
THE NORTHERN SEA-LiIon (Otaria steller?). 
The northern sea-lion, which is likewise a hair-seal, differs from the preceding 
species, and agrees with all those that follow by the absence of a mane on its neck, 
by its narrow and pointed nose, relatively long ears, and by the flattened palate of 
the skull, which is not truncated behind. In the concave facial profile it differs 
from the southern sea-lion. 
This is the largest member of the whole group, full-grown males, according 
to Mr. Allen, measuring from 11 to 123 or 13 feet in total length, of which the tail 
forms 3 or 4 inches; while their girth varies from about 8 to 10 feet, and their 
weight is estimated at from 1000 to 1300 lbs. In colour the young are of a 
rich dark chestnut-brown. The adults, when they first reach the breeding-grounds, 
are of a light brownish rufous colour in both sexes, the tint being darker between 
the fore-limbs and on the under-parts. Later on in the season the colour changes, 
however, to a golden rufous or ochrey tint ; and when the new winter coat appears 
in November, the colour has been described as a light sepia, or Vandyke brown, 
with deeper tints on the under-parts; and at this season of the year the females 
are distinctly of a lighter colour than the males. 
This fine seal inhabits the shores of the North Pacific from Behring 
Strait southwards to California and Japan, and is one of the species 
found in the Prybiloff Islands in Behring Sea; its northern limits being apparently 
determined by the southern border of the Polar floating ice. It was first discovered 
in the year 1741, during Behring’s first expedition, and was described by the 
naturalist Steller, who accompanied that navigator. 
Mr. W. D. Elliot, writing of this species in the Prybiloft Islands, 
observes that it has a really leonine appearance and bearing, greatly 
enhanced by the rich golden-rufous of its coat, and the ferocity of its expression. 
Although provided with flippers, to all external view the same as in the fur-seal, it 
cannot, however, make use of them in the same free manner. While the fur-seal 
Distribution. 
Habits. 
can be driven five or six miles in twenty-four hours, the sea-lion can barely go two, 
the conditions of weather and roadway being the same. The sea-lions balance and 
