106 DR.J. MURIE ON THE SEALS OF THE FALKLANDS. |[Jan. 28, 
shingle, were picked up on the beach at Elephant Island, on the east 
side of the Falklands. Lecomte and his companions believed these 
large old skulls of Otaria jubata to be those of the Elephant-Seal 
(Morunga elephantina), as it was stated by some of the party that 
these animals formerly did exist on this island. One of the pilots 
(Louis Despreaux by name) had resided thirty-two years on the 
Falkland Islands, and he distinctly remembered shooting many 
Elephant-Seals in the neighbourhood in bygone years ; but about 
twelve years ago they began to get scarce and disappear. While 
Lecomte was absent on one of his excursions, a report was current 
on the islands that a young Elephant-Seal, about 8 feet long, had 
been killed with a baton by the lighthouse-keeper at Cape Pembroke. 
On his return Lecomte endeavoured to obtain the skeleton, but it 
had in the meantime been destroyed. 
II. OrariA NIGRESCENS. 
16. Bones of the two pectoral extremities of an adult male Fur- 
Seal. Specimen shot by Mr. Cobb (the Manager of the Falkland- 
Island Company) on the Volunteer Rocks, north-east of the Falkland- 
Island group. 
Habits and Economy of the Eared Seals.—Under this heading I 
append chiefly such observations as I. have received verbally from 
Lecomte upon interrogating him respecting what he had witnessed 
of the daily life of these creatures. 
He corroborates the statements of the older voyagers as regards 
the gregarious habits of the Eared Seals. At various times he has 
seen families of six, a dozen, and even up to twenty; but, generally 
speaking, he supposes from ten to fifteen to be the average number 
of a family group. Several families, again, congregate near each 
other in the same creek or islet, but, notwithstanding, they do not 
intermingle. In one instance he calculated there would be about 
forty individuals, old and young, in the herd. This was when the 
old male was shot and the four youngsters captured alive. On an- 
other occasion, that on which the two adult pregnant females were 
killed, he reckoned there would be as many as 100 in the herd, dis- 
tributed, of course, hither and thither in clusters. 
They seem to prefer {it may be through a wise precaution on their 
part) headlands or isthmuses, and choose the most southern locality 
thereon as a resting-place. One of the old males guards as a sen- 
tinel. Usually he is seen perched on an eminence, and invariably, 
as Lecomte affirms, with outstretched neck and upraised head, as if 
sniffing around for the slightest ominous warning. ‘The signal of a 
grunt or growl sets the others on the alert ; and on any real approach 
of danger they rush all helter-skelter towards the water, which they 
never wander far from. 
Their daily occupation seems divided between sleeping and pro- 
curing food. They lie huddled together in a drowsy condition, or 
slumber, for a great part of their time, and this both during the day 
and night. At high tides, day and night, they take to fishing near 
