92 NATUEAL HISTORY OF AQUATIC ANIMALS. 



just out and beyond the breaking of the rollers, they idly lie on the rocks or sand-beaches, ever 

 and anon turning over and over, scratching their backs and sides with their fore- and hind-flippers. 

 The Seals on the breeding ground appear to get very lousy. 



The ¥nv Seal spends a great deal of time, both at sea and on land, in scratching its hide; for it 

 is annoyed by a species of louse, a Pediculus, to just about the same degree and in the same manner 

 that our dogs are by fleas. To scratch, it sits upon its haunches, and scrapes away with the 

 toe-nails of first one and then the other of its hind- flippers; by which action it reaches readily all 

 portions of its head, neck, chest, and shoulders ; and, with either one or the other of its fore- 

 flippers, it rubs down its spinal region back of the shoulders to the tail. By that division of labor 

 with its feet, it can promptly reduce, with every sign of comfort, any lousy irritation wheresoever 

 on its body. This Pediculus, peculiar to the Fur Seal, attaches itself almost exclusively to the 

 pectoral regions; a few, also, are generally found at the bases of the auricular pavilions. 



When the Fur Seal is engaged in this exercise, it cocks its head and wears exactly the same 

 expression that our common house-dog does while subjugating and eradicating fleas; the eyes are 

 partly or wholly closed; the tongue lolls out; and the whole demeanor is one of quiet but intense 

 satisfaction. 



The Fur Seal appears also to scratch itself in the water with the same facility and unction so 

 marked on land; only it varies the action by using its fore-hands principally, in its fluviatile 

 exercise, while its hind-feet do most of the terrestrial scraping. 



While 1 have written with much emphasis upon the total absence of any record as to the prev- 

 alence of an epidemic in these large rookeries, I should, perhaps, mark the fact that no symptoms 

 of internal diseases have ever been noticed here, such as tuberculosis of the lungs, etc., which 

 invariably attack and destroy the Fur Seal when it is taken into confinement, as well as the Sea 

 Lions also ; the latter, however, have a much greater power of endurance under such artificial 

 circumstances of life. The thousands upon thousands of disemboweled Pribylov fur-seal carcasses 

 have never presented abnormal or diseased viscera of any kind. 



Mangy cows and pups. — The frequent winds and showers drive and spatter sand into their 

 fur and eyes, often making the latter quite sore. This occurs when they are obliged to leave the 

 rocky rookeries and follow their pups out over the sandridges and flats, to which they always 

 have a natural aversion. On the hauling grounds they pack the soil under foot so hard and tightly 

 in many places, that it holds water in the surface depre.'^sions, just like so many rock-basins. Out 

 of and into these puddles the pups and the females flounder and patter incessantly, until evapora- 

 tion slowly abates the nuisance. This is for the time only, inasmuch as the next day, perhaps, 

 brings more rain, and the dirty pools are replenished. 



The pups sometimes get so thoroughly plastered in these muddy, slimy puddles, that the hair 

 falls oft' in patches, giving them, at first sight, the appearance of being troubled with scrofula or 

 some other plague: from my investigations, directed to this point, I became satisfied that they 

 were not permanently injured, though evidently very much annoyed. With reference to this 

 suggestion as to sickness or distemper among the Seals, I gave the subject direct and continued 

 attention, and in no one of the rookeries could I discover a single Seal, no matter how old or young, 

 which appeared to he suffering in the least from any physical disorder, other than that which they 

 themselves had inflicted, one upon the other, by fighting. The third season, passing directly under 

 my observation, failed to reward my search with any manifestation of dsease among the Seals 

 which congregate in such miglity numbers on the rookeries of Saint Paul and Saint George. The 

 remarkable freedom from all such complaints enjoyed by these animals is noteworthy, and the 



