1869.] DR.J.MURIE ON THE SEALS OF THE FALKLANDS. 107 
the entrance of the freshwater rivulets into the sea. At such times 
they will remain a whole tide dabbling about singly after food. This 
consists of fish and crustaceans. In capturing their prey they 
swallow it either above or below the water. Our live Sea-lion in 
the Gardens, as a rule, comes to the surface during the process of 
deglutition ; the other Seals swallow underneath the water. Lecomte 
says the Eared Seals never drink water ; and he substantiates the fact 
that he kept the first animal he brought to this country for a year 
without fluid, except such as adhered to the fish he fed it with. 
He tells me, moreover, he has noticed the common Seals in our own 
collection occasionally suck in water as a horse would, but the Otaria 
never. Another curious 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. Indeed one of the Falk- 
land-Island pilots told Lecomte in good faith that he himself had 
removed 28 lb. of stones from the digestive cavity of an Elephant- 
Seal, an old Otaria jubata(?). The common notion among the 
traders and hunters is that these Seals swallow the stones as a kind 
of ballast to enable them to dive quickly after their prey. For my 
own part I cannot at all accept this reason on the evidence. 
The voices of the old and young animals differ in tone. The adult, 
and more particularly the old ones either growl in an undertone, or, 
when excited during the breeding-season, heighten this to a volu- 
minous interrupted roar. The young cries with a kind of bleat like 
a sheep. In the first Sea-lion possessed by the Society the pupils 
of the eyes contracted and dilated to an enormous extent ; and when 
enlarged, which took place towards sunset, they became of an opaline 
hue. The live Otaria jubata at present in the Gardens also mani- 
fests considerable dilatability of the pupils, but not quite the same 
change of colour. At night the eye of Phoca vitulina appears iri- 
descent, as in some Carnivora. As regards this frequent change in 
the diameter of the pupil in Otaria, this may have relation to its 
nocturnal habits as much as to the difference of medium in which 
the animal lives. 
The sexual season lasts for about a month, namely, between the 
latter end of February and that of March. As has been described 
by other observers, Lecomte remarks there are then regular pitched 
battles, the females looking on but not interfering. The males at 
such times are savage, and if attacked do not run away ; but the 
females are rather timid and shy.. After these matches are adjusted, 
a good deal of playing and gambolling in the water occurs, but the 
act of coupling takes place on the land. When a male, through age 
or otherwise, is driven away, he leads a solitary life, and then often 
goes further inland. 
The females go with young about ten months, giving birth to a 
single one about Christmas or the end of the year, equivalent to our 
midsummer in this country. Lecomte says there is no great interval 
between parturition in the females of a herd, as the young range 
much of a size. They rear their offspring at a short distance from 
