NOTES ON BREEDING HABITS. 55 



Combining these tables, we have a total of 176 female seals taken during 1895 

 and 1896 between August 10 and September 3, which may be considered as fairly- 

 representing the age and condition of seals taken at sea. Of these 176, there were 14 

 yearlings, 16 2-year-olds, and 146 over 2 years old. All over 2 years old had brought 

 forth young the season they were taken, and 151 of those 2 years old and upward 

 were pregnant. The total number of seals examined whose condition was at all 

 uncertain was 11, and 7 of these were 2-year-olds examined before August 22, and 

 these might have been impregnated later in the season. Moreover, in 9 of the doubtful 

 cases the ovaries were not preserved, or examination under more favorable circum- 

 stances might have lessened even this number, for the corpus luteum does not show 

 so clearly in fresh specimens as in those which have been hardened iu alcohol. The 

 exact condition of some of the specimens taken during 1896 was questionable when 

 the ovary was fresh, while later examination showed that, with one exception, all the 

 doubtful cases were pregnant. These tables show very clearly what has been so well 

 stated by Mr. Townsend — that the majority of females at sea are both nursing and 

 pregnant, so that the killing of one female is practically the loss of three seals, 

 and pelagic sealing not only is the burning of the candle at both ends, but in the 

 iniddle as well. 



On PI. XI are shown a number of ovaries bisected to show the appearance of the 

 sc9,r of recent impregnation (corpus luteum) and the vanishing scar (corpus albicans) 

 of former impregnation. The scar resulting from the simple rupture of a Graafian 

 follicle soon disappears, but when impregnation has taken place the scar continues 

 to develop for some time, and does not disappear until some little time after delivery. 

 Old scars were plainly visible, after immersion in alcohol, on the ovaries of seals 

 killed in September, although delivery must have taken place a month or six weeks 

 previously. 



NOTES BEARING ON BREEDING HABITS. 



The first instance of copulation seen occurred on Tolstoi sand flat June 22. The 

 harem contained a single cow, with a pup apparently 2 or 3 days old. Nothing is 

 known about the arrival of the cow or the birth of the pup, but neither was present 

 on the 16th when Tolstoi was first visited. 



The second copulation was witnessed at 3.30, June 23, on Lukanin, in a harem of 

 five cows. This harem was formed during the night of the 19th, three cows being 

 present in it at; 8.30 on the morning of the 20th. As the harem lay at a distance from 

 observation points, no record of the birth of pups can be given. 



The third copulation occurred on Lukanin in a harem containing nineteen cows. 

 The harem was formed with one cow on the 18th, first seen at 9 a. m. Her pup was 

 born between 8 and 9 a. m. the following day. The other cows were added to the 

 harem on the 20th at 10.30, and a fourth at about the same hour the following day. 

 Two additional pups were born to the harem at 3 p. m. on the 21st. The time of 

 copulation was 9 o'clock, June 26. 



The fourth copulation was witnessed in the harem which has the cow that has 

 been present since the 12th without a pup. A second cow joined this harem on the 

 21st at 10 o'clock, and her pup was born at noon the following day. There are now 

 five cows in the harem, but three are recent arrivals. The time of copulation was 

 9.30 o'clock in the evening of the 27th. 



