12 



E. LÖNNBERG, CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE FAUNA OF SOUTH GEORGIA. 



care of them. Sörling reports for instance, that, if a calf is driven into the water, 

 the bull hastens as quick as possible to his aid, although he otherwise during this 

 season does not want to go into the sea. He swims out to the young, swims before 

 him, catches him över the neck (as a cat with her kittens) and tries in every pos- 

 sible way with mild force to get him ashore again and does not cease before he has 

 succeeded in his endeavours and brought the young back to the mother again. The 

 cow again is quite passive and does not seem to care anything about the whole pro- 

 ceeding. 



The heat of the bulls which have not been 

 lucky enough to find a cow is sometimes very 

 violent and even misguided. Sörling saw once 

 such wretched being attack a young animal hardly 

 measuring more than V/ t metre in length. He 

 reports about this observation in the following 

 words: »When I walked round one day at the 

 Moraine Fjord, I noticed, how a small calf (Ele- 

 phant-seal) was ill-treated by an old bull, because 

 it would not pair with him. The calf tried to 

 escape and crawled away as fast as possible, but 

 the bull pursued with such speed as he could 

 afford with his clumsy body. Finally he reached 

 the poor calf and bit it several times with his 



big tusks. At the 

 same time as he 

 repeatedly bit the 

 calf he emitted the 

 male organ in its 

 whole length. 



When I thus 

 perceived his nasty 

 intention I came 

 to rescue and teas- 

 ed the bull as 

 much as I could. 



I succeeded perfectly to draw the attention of the bull to me so he turned against 

 me in hot råge and tried to bite me. Meanwhile the young calf escaped and dis- 

 appeared. » 



As a rule the Elephant-seals do not attack a man. They only blow up their 

 nose and open their mouths widely and roar (Pl. III fig. 6) when disturbed. »They 

 are too lazy to attack», Sörling thinks but he adds, »if an old bull is teased or 

 worried he may, nevertheless, prove to be a dangerous foe if one stånds in front 

 of him and too near his head.» If roused to the highest pitch of råge he raises his 

 body even higher than when fighting with another Elephant, in fact he stånds almost 



_ hWk t 



Fig. 1. Sketch of an irate Elephantseal. 



