186 CAKNIVORA. 



turning that is done by the Pur Seals when in the water 

 around the islands. The grave old bulls and their 

 matronly companions seldom indulge in any extravagant 

 display, such as jumping out of the water like so many 

 dolphins, describing, as these youngsters do, beautiful 

 elliptic curves, rising three or four feet from the sea, 

 with the back shghtly arched, the fore flippers folded 

 back against the sides, and the hinder legs extended 

 and pressed together straight out behind, plumping 

 in head first, reappearing in the same manner after an 

 interval of a few seconds. 



" They have a peculiar smell when they are driven 

 and get heated. It may be, perhaps, truly inferred that 

 the bulls live to an average age of eighteen or twenty 

 years, if undisturbed, in a normal condition ; and that 

 the cows attain ten or twelve under the same circum- 

 stances. I saw but three albino pups among the 

 hundreds of thousands on Saint Paul's, and none on 

 Saint George's. They did not differ in any respect from 

 the other (normal) pups in size and shape. The hair in 

 the first coat was all over a dull ochre ; the flippers and 

 muzzle were a flesh tone, and the iris of the eye sky- 

 blue. The second coat gives them a dirty yellowish- 

 white colour, but it makes them exceedingly conspicuous 

 when in among the black pups, grey yearlings, and 

 ' hoUus-chukie.' 



" The Seals have neither increased nor diminished to 

 any noteworthy degree from the date of their discovery 

 ■ in 1786-87." 



Selection and Rule in Killing. 



"As the proportion of males and females is about 

 equal at birth, the polygamous nature of these animals 

 will allow of the killing of seven out of every ten males, 



