LATITUDE IN HABITS OF SEALS. 93 



the individual. Eor does it seem probable that all the bachelor seals are subject to a 

 verj pressing desire to go ashore until the sexual instinct is awakened. The hauling 

 out on dry land by any immature seal is, therefore, only the result of the habit having 

 been inherited. It is therefore likely to be of very varied intensity, and there is 

 nothing intrinsically improbable in admitting that this habit in some, or even in many, 

 is only awakened at the approach of sexual maturity. It must, furthermore, be borne 

 ill mind that the bachelor seals require an abundance of food no less than the females. 

 The nursing of the young makes it imperative for the latter to visit the distant 

 feeding grounds, and also to return regularly to the rookery. The bachelor seal, on 

 the other hand, in contradistinction to the old fat bulls remaining the entire season 

 on the rookery, needs a big food supply because he is growing; but, different from the 

 female, he has no individual business on the rookery. Of course, while there is no 

 advantage to the individual bachelor in hauling out, there is an advantage to the 

 species, inasmuch as it tends to strengthen the inherited habit which insures the 

 return of the necessary number of breeding males at a later age to their respective 

 rookeries, but this proposition does not involve any necessity for all to do so. 



The above observations and reflections, which are chiefly submitted in order to 

 emphasize that it is necessary to allow for a certain latitude in the habits of the seals, 

 I am now going to follow up with a series of special observations upon certain phases 

 of fur-seal life which I made during the investigations of last summer. They are in 

 part corroborative of observations made by investigators in other localities, particu- 

 larly the Pribilof Islands, while, in part, opposed to the opinions held by some other 

 observers. In so far as this diversity of opinion affects certain theories only, my 

 deductions will stand or fall upon their own logic; but where there is a disagreement 

 as to the facts I beg to remind my readers that the facts, as here set forth, only relate 

 to the conditions found on the Commander Islands, and more particularly on Bering 

 Island. If the facts observed by me differ from those established by others, it does 

 not necessarily follow that one of the two observations is erroneous. I will again 

 recall the fact of the bachelors mixing among the females and the consequent driving 

 of the latter on Bering Island in order to show that there are differences between 

 the conditions there and upon the Pribilof Islands. These differences have been 

 treated of in a separate chapter (p. 218). 



POOD OF SEALS AT THE ISLANDS AND EXCREMENTS ON THE ROOKERIES. 



The question as to what animals furnish the bulk of the food of the fur-seals can 

 not be solved positively on the rookeries. My investigations last summer corroborated 

 those of twelve and thirteen years ago and tally with those of others, viz, empty 

 stomachs with a few stones in them, and occasionally a few beaks of cephalopods, or 

 very rarely the backbone of some unlucky fish. Siuce, however, as I have already 

 pointed out, the bachelor seals on account of their growth must necessarily take a great 

 deal of food during the summer, the above negative result does prove pretty positively 

 that the seals on the Commander Islands must, as a rule, obtain their food so far from 

 the islands that it is thoroughly digested before they return to the hauling grounds.' 



I emphasize again the "as a rule," because there are single observations to the 

 contrary. Thus, I was informed on Bering Island that once on the south rookery a 



' The food and feeding of the seals aie treated at length in Fart III. 



