CHARACTER OF FOOD. 61 



It is hardly necessary to write these thiugs for naturalists, but so much nonsense 

 has been published concerning the food of pups, the possibility of their subsisting 

 on crustaceans and kelp, and the i)robability of jjups whose mothers were killed at 

 seabeiug nursed by other cows that it is desirable to emphasize these points.' 



The young seals are apparently weaned in November, at about the time they 

 depart for the South, and after leaving they are doubtless forced to shift for themselves, 

 and must learn to capture squid and fish or starve. It is not unlikely that losses at 

 this period from failure to obtain food add largely to the roll of those who are miss- 

 ing the ensuing spring. 



From the time he is weaned, onward, the food of the fur seal during a great por- 

 tion of the year and over a large part of its range can only be surmised from observa- 

 tions of stomachs obtained in Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. These indicate 

 that the fur seal does not procure its food at any great depth, but that it feeds 

 mainly on squid and such fishes as swim near the surface. In Bering Sea duriug 

 August and September the pollock ( Theragra chalcogramma) forms the staple article 

 of food, a squid [Gonatus amoenus) coming next in importance, while some salmon 

 and a few species of small fishes are also eaten. One of these last, although devoured 

 in large numbers, and therefore abundant in many localities, is apparently new and 

 is described on page 440 under the name of seal fish. 



Mr. A. B. Alexander observes that the "material which has been found in the 

 stomachs of seals taken in different i^arts of Bering Sea indicates that only a small 

 percentage is composed of fish which inhabit deex> water. It is only reasonable to 

 suppose that when seals are in shallow water they feed on both bottom fish and those 

 near the surface." ^ 



Surface fishes, and especially squid, seem to be the natural food of the seal. In 

 the stomachs that have been examined a variety of material was found, such as 

 pieces of Alaskan pollock, salmon, and other fi.shes, but it has also been observed 

 that in localities where squid are plentiful very little other food may be looked for. 

 I am informed by hunters that on the coast of Japan and off the Commander Islands 

 squid occur in great abundance, and that it is not an uncommon sight to see a half 

 dozen or more seals together feeding on the tentacles of an octo}3us floating on the 

 surface. Sealers find squid i)lentiful off the island of Kadiak, and in that locality 

 they have olten been found in large quantities in the stomachs of seals. 



Outside of Bering Sea the food changes somewhat. The pollock grows rare to the 

 southward, while salmon, herring, and rockfish become abundant. Doubtless these 

 and other available fishes are eateu in numbers. We have no reason to suppose that 

 the seal i^refers the flesh of any one species to another. 



Captain Todd says the food of seals taken near the mainland (northwest coast) 

 consists largely of salmon, and that this is true of the Japan and Copper Island sealing 



1 In that treasury of misinformation, the Proceedings of the Paris Tribunal, is the following 

 piece of testimony, introduced to show the probability of cows nursing strange pups, and although 

 the Paris Tribunal is a thing of the past, this gem deserves to be preserved: 



Q. "Is it common and easy to make ewes suckle other ewes' lambs? 



"Yes. It can be effected by putting the skin of the ewe's dead lamb on the lamb she is desired 

 to adopt, or by holding her and getting the lamb to suck her for a few days." 



Very easy, indeed! The inferential spectacle of seal pups wandering over the rookeries dressed 

 up in their brothers' cast-olf clothes, or of half a dozen Aleuts holding a cow seal for a day or two 

 while two or three other natives applied the pup, ajipeuls vividly to the imagination. 



-There is, however, uo evidence of this except in the rare presence of cottoids noted beyond. 



