396 CARNIVORA 
strongest and most successful in fight retain the best places near 
the shore: the weaker have to crawl] farther up on land, where the 
chances of getting a sufficient number of spouses are not particularly 
great. The fighting goes on with many feigned attacks and parades. 
At first the contest concerns only the proprietorship of the soil. 
The attacked, therefore, never follows his opponent beyond the 
area he has once taken up, but haughtily lays itself down, when 
the enemy has retired, in order to collect strength for a new 
combat. The animal in such a case grunts with satisfaction, throws 
himself on his back, scratches himself with his fore feet, attends to his 
toilet, or cools himself by slowly fanning with one of his hind feet : 
but he is always on the alert and ready for a new fight, until he is 
tired out and meets his match and is driven farther up from the 
beach. In the middle of June the females come up from the sea. 
At the waters edge they are received in a very gallant way by 
some strong bulls that have succeeded in securing for themselves 
places next the shore, and now are bent by fair means or foul on 
annexing the females for their harem. But searcely is the female 
that has come up out of the water established with male No. 1 than 
he rushes towards a new female on the surface of the water. Male 
No. 2 now stretches out his neck and without ceremony lays hold 
of the female of No. 1, to be afterwards exposed to a similar trick 
by No. 3. In such cases the females are quite passive, never fall 
out with each other, and bear with patience the severe wounds they 
often get when they are pulled about by the combatants, now in 
one direction, now in another. All the females are finally dis 
tributed in this way after furious combats among the males, those 
of the latter who are nearest the beach getting from 12 to 15 consorts 
to their share. Soon after landing the females bring forth their 
young, which are treated with great indifference, and are protected 
by their adopted father only within the limits of the harem. Next 
comes the pairing season, and when it has passed there is an end to 
the arrangement and distribution into families at first so strictly 
maintained. The males, rendered lean by three months’ absolute 
fasting, by degrees leave the rookery, which is left in possession of 
the Walruses and the young Sea Bears, including a number of 
young males that have not ventured to the place before. In the 
middle of September, when the young have learned to swim, the 
place is quite abandoned, with the exception of single animals that 
have for some reason remained behind.” 
Family TRICHECHID-. 
In many characters the single genus representing this family 
is intermediate between the Otariide and Phocide, but it has a 
completely aberrant dentition. It has no external ears, as in the 
