THE FEMALE NURSES ONLY HER OWN PUP. 103 



At 1 o'clock p. m. I moved to the northern end of the rookery. Among the notes 

 written down there I find the following: 



The pups were very active, running to and fro, bnt I could not discover that any of them went 

 very far away from where I saw them first. On the other hand, females hauling out of the water 

 were constantly traveling all over the rookery, calling and bleating. 



Later in the season similar observations were made on the little South rookery, 

 Bering Island (August 17, 1895). The notes then written down also contain some 

 reflections of a general nature upon the question. It is hardly necessary to add that 

 upon further reflection I still adhere to the opinion then expressed— an opinion which 

 may possibly have some weight, written as it was in plain view of the seals it refers 

 to. That part of my diary reads as follows : 



I was able to get very close to the grounds, which were occupied by mothers and pups only. A 

 good many of the latter were in the water, bnt there was also quite a large pod of smaller pups at 

 the posterior edge of the herd [near the place where I was watching]. I was again impressed, as 

 before on Kishotchnaya, by the action of the females and pups when the former haul up from the 

 water and go in search of the young to nurse it. The ground is hero so small that it is a comparatively 

 easy task for the mother to find its young, and I consequently observed several dripping-wet cows 

 nursing pups. The mother in coming out of the water made straight for the pod of pups and the 

 usual performance of pups rushing up and, upon being nosed at critically, refused, whereupon her 

 search continued, was gone through. 



So much is absolutely certain, that the females do not nurse the pups promiscuously. I am 

 thoroughly convinced by what I have seen that the mother wanders considerable distances and spends 

 much time in searching for her own individual child. Whether a mother who had searched in vain 

 for a long time, and whose milk was pressing her very strongly, might not finally give in to the 

 importunities of a particularly hungry pup is a question which it wjll probably never be possible to 

 answer definitely, but I think such cases [if they occur] are the exceptions; the rule is certainly the 

 reverse. 



To the above I need ad<l but little by way of argument. Persons who reject it on 

 purely theoretical grounds have adduced much testimony to show how some other 

 animals do not discriminate between their own young and those of other mothers, but 

 anyone who has studied the habits of wild animals will know how utterly futile such 

 an argument is, and how absurd it is to conclude from one species what are the 

 habits of another. 



I may iinally, however, call attention to the fact that the opinion here held has of 

 late received strong confirmation. I refer to the thousands of starving pups of late 

 years found on the rookeries; for if the females were willing to nurse the pups of other 

 mothers as well as their own there would seem to be no reason at all why "any pups 

 should starve to death. 



MORTALITY OF PUPS. 



The above reflection leads me to the question of the mortality of pups on the 

 rookeries. With the reports of the appalling loss of pups on the Pribylof Islands 

 fresh in my mind, one of the first inquiries I made on Bering Island, upon my arrival, 

 naturally was whether any unusual mortality had been observed there. 



The answer came from an authoritative source that — 



No abnormal mortality had been observed among the pups on the Commander Islands. A few 

 are killed on the rookeries by the old bulls stepping on them, or otherwise, and others are caught in 

 the breakers and surf and are thrown on the beaches. The skins of these are all utilized and their 

 number on each island averages about 200 a year. 



