HOOKER’S SEA-LION. 65 
December. Soon after the cows appear, and on landing give birth to the young, each 
male securing a harem of ten to twenty cows, and protecting the mothers and young 
pups. The rutting season is in January, after which the males leave the mothers to 
bring up the young until May, when they all leave the coast for the winter.” 
Tt will be seen at once that this account does not agree with our observa- 
tions. There is no doubt that the males when we were there in the third week 
of March had not left the rookery, neither is there any doubt that the young one 
which we procured had died very shortly after birth, not more than the day before 
we found it, and as there was but one other small pup upon the beach, it was natural 
that we should have surmised that they were both either very early arrivals or very 
late, with a probability of the latter, as they were born in the latter end of March ; 
moreover, the fights that we saw between the males, as well as the definite collection 
of so many harems around them, led us to think that the breeding season might be in 
progress, perhaps later in the Auckland Islands than on the west coast of New Zealand, 
where Sir James Hector made his observations, many years ago. In his note he goes 
on to say that “the mode of life of the hair seals has been much altered since 1863, 
when I made my first observations, and I believe that the New Zealand Hair Seals 
(Protoarctus hookeri) have now become much more solitary, and that they will soon 
become extinct.” 
While it is quite possible that the colonies might be broken up to some 
extent, it is hardly likely that they could have changed the month in which the young 
were to be born. As Sir James Hector’s observations are the result of a longer 
experience and observation than our own, we can only think that the pups we saw 
were born a month or two later than is usually the case, and that the rest of the 
young perhaps had gone to sea. 
The food of Hooker’s Sea-lion in March appeared to consist exclusively of a 
large red crab. No doubt the diet varies from one season to another, for it is hardly 
probable that they would find the same crustaceans while they lived mainly on 
shore and visited only shallow water that they would find while living a more pelagic 
life during the winter months. Fish would then, no doubt, form a considerable 
proportion of their food. 
The large red Auckland Island crab is known as Nectocarcinus antarcticus, 
and is a shallow water form. We know that the sea-lions eat them in large 
numbers, because we found evidence of it everywhere along the shore and in the bush. 
The Sea-lions, having satisfied themselves at sea, come in shore, and make their way 
into the bush, where, amidst the rank growth of scrub and tussac grass, they sleep, 
and sooner or later regurgitate a bolus composed of the undigested remnants of the 
crabs, whose legs and shells are rolled into a mass the size and shape of a hen’s egg. 
We saw the Sea-lions upon occasions chasing such birds as Cormorants, and 
probably anything that would be food to an ordinary carnivorous appetite would be 
food also to them. 
VOL. Il. F 
