EAEED-SEALS. 517 



Sea-lions have never bred in the Gardens of the Zoological 

 Society, but they have done so in captivity, for the animals in the 

 Brighton Aquarium in May, 1877, became the parents of the first 

 young one born in any collection in Europe of which there is any 

 record. 



The present occupant of the sea-lions' tank in the Zoological 

 Gardens, whose photograph was taken as she emerged with her 

 mouth open as a protest against the intrusion within her domain, 

 is an animal highly valued by the Society, and one that affords 

 considerable entertainment to the visitors. She goes through 

 certain performances by command of her keeper, which admirably 

 exhibit the peculiarities of her structure. She mounts on a chair 

 and proceeds to catch the fish thrown her ; or in her lumbering 

 but expeditious manner she makes her way up the sloping ascent 

 of the raised platform which has been built for her accommoda- 

 tion, and much to the delight of the children looking on proceeds 

 to take a "header" back to the water. It is in this element that 

 her movements become peculiarly fascinating to watch. The ease 

 with which she swims, now slowly, now rapidly, with no evident 

 increase of exertion, is like the circling and swoop of a hawk on 

 the wing, the very poetry of motion. If a fish be again thrown 

 her, it is worth while to mark the lightning-like rapidity with 

 which she darts to the correct spot, and by bringing her head 

 well above the surface succeeds in catching it in her mouth with a 

 precision that must make the Eton cricketer looking on envious of 

 her skill. In this performance a most wonderful power is displayed, 

 for she can, without any perceptible previous diminution of her 

 greatest speed, instantaneously arrest her progress apparently by 

 mere volition. 



