500 WILD ANIMALS. 



are generally three weeks or a month later than this date in 

 arrival." 



"A well understood principle exists among the able-bodied 

 bulls, to wit, that each one shall remain undisturbed on his ground, 

 which is usually about six to eight feet square, provided that at 

 the start, and from that time until the arrival of the females, he 

 is strong enough to hold this ground against all comers ; inas- 

 much as the crowding in of the fresh arrivals often causes the 

 removal of those which, though equally able-bodied at first, have 

 exhausted themselves by fighting earlier and constantly ; they are 

 finally driven by these fresher animals back farther and higher up 

 on the rookery, and sometimes off altogether. 



" Many of these buUs exhibit wonderful strength and desperate 

 courage. I marked one veteran at Gorbatch who was the first to 

 take up his position early in May, and that position, as usual, 

 directly at the water-fine. This male seal had fought at least 

 forty or fifty desperate battles, and fought off his assailants every 

 time — perhaps nearly as many different seals which coveted his 

 position — and when the fighting season was over (after the cows 

 are mostly all hauled up), I saw him still there, covered with scars 

 and frightfully gashed ; raw, festering and bloody, one eye gouged 

 out, but lording it bravely over his harem of fifteen or twenty 

 females, who were all huddled together on the same spot of his 

 first location and around him. 



" This fighting between the old and adult males (for none others 

 fight) is mostly, or rather entirely, done with the mouth. The 

 opponents seize one another with their teeth, and, then clenching 

 their jaws, nothing but the sheer strength of the one and the other 

 tugging to escape can shake them loose, and that effort invariably 

 leaves an ugly wound, the sharp canines tearing out deep gutters 

 in the skin and furrows in the blubber, or shredding the flippers 

 into ribbon strips. 



" They usually approach each other with comically averted 

 heads, just as though they were ashamed of the rumpus which 

 they are determined to precipitate. When they get near enough 

 to reach one another they enter upon the repetition of many 

 feints or passes, before either one or the other takes the initiative 



