Mammalia.] 



SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. 



548 



landing. This circumstance is due to the fact that the under-fur as found in the fur- 

 seals is not developed, and the species is therefore a " hair-seal," and, being regarded 

 of small commercial value, has not been subjected to the reducing influences which 

 have well-nigh exterminated the fur-seal. 



As a colony was approached by a boat-party the seals shuffled about uneasily, 

 but, as the men landed, the animals showed more forcible objection. The females, or 

 sea-bears, generally made off, but the larger shaggy males stood their ground until 

 actually beaten off, grunting, barking, and biting in a very ferocious manner. Their 



Fig. 1.— Sea-lions [Arctocephahifi Iiaokeri), Endekby Island, Auckland Islands. 



onslaught consists of a rapid shuffle for a few yards, accompanied by a roaring or 

 barking, which is sufficiently alarming ; but ordinarily there is small difficulty in 

 avoiding them, and there is no evidence on the part of the seals to give any lengthened 

 chase. Most of them took to the sea, but others retreated beneath the Olearia trees, 

 where the ground was so soft as to make further pursuit after an angry bull too 

 dangerous to be entertained, to say nothing of the filthy and odorous condition 

 of these tracks, used by generations of seals. At the Snares we came across 

 a blind bull, and it was pitiable to see it wildly charging in all directions ; at 

 one time it came into violent contact with a tree, and finally rushed over a bank 

 falling heavily on to the ground beneath. Every one wondered how it was able 

 to exist. 



