28o TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



temperate and cold latitudes, the different varieties being 

 found in the localities before indicated. Most of them 

 are clothed only with coarse, hard, stiff hair, varying in 

 length with age and the season of the year, and being 

 wholly devoid of soft under-fur. But the sea-bear of the 

 Prybiloff Islands and the southern sea-bear have, as 

 before said, an abundant soft, silky under-fur, which 

 gives to the skins, especially of the females and young 

 males, great value as articles of commerce. In these 

 precious skins, the longer, coarser over-hair also varies in 

 length and abundance according to age and the season 

 of the year. 



There is generally a wonderful disparity in size between 

 the sexes, similar to that noticed by Abbott in the Pata- 

 gonian variety. Adult males may weigh three, and 

 sometimes five times as much as do the females. They 

 are all greedy devourers of fish, which their sharp-pointed, 

 trident-shajied, grinding, or molar, teeth enable them to 

 catch and retain easily. In confinement they will eat a 

 prodigious quantity of fish, and readily learn to catch 

 them in the air when they are thrown to them, as also 

 to climb into and perch themselves on chairs, and to play 

 a number of amusing tricks, the acquisition of which 

 shows that they possess considerable intelligence as well 

 as docility. 



It is, however, very surprising that, in spite of their 

 voracity, the males at least will, at certain seasons, remain 

 for almost an incredible period without food, although at 

 the very time they may be exerting great combative 

 energy. This is connected with their breeding habits, 

 which are very singular and remarkable. They are 

 gregarious and polygamous animals, which associate 

 together in vast troops. 



Nevertheless, the troops are largely composed of 



