760 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



THE SNOUT IS JUST BEGINNING TO DEVELOP AND CAN BE PROTRUDED ONLY A COUPLE OF INCHES. 



were offered a variety of food consisting of 

 numerous kinds of fishes besides crustaceans 

 and squids. For a few days, probably because 

 of their strange environment, they took no food 

 at all, but their appetites gradually returned, 

 and they now require daily six or seven pounds 

 of food apiece. All sorts of fish appear to be 

 acceptable, but they are chiefly fed on smelts, 

 torn cods, roach and pieces of cod. The food is 

 not bolted whole, as is the case with most seals, 

 but is well crushed before being swallowed. 

 After the food is secured the animal usually 

 turns upon its back during the processes of 

 mastication and swallowing. There are no car- 

 nassial nor molariform teeth in the molar series, 

 but the small, blunt-conical teeth, separated by 

 rather wide diastemmata or spaces, are sufficient 

 to crush the flesh of the fish and reduce it to a 

 pulpy condition before it is swallowed. 



The age of these specimens is uncertain, as 

 the published accounts of the breeding season 

 vary greatly. Captain Seaman states (Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sei., Philadelphia, 1869), that on 

 Santa Barbara Island in June, 1853, "we found 

 several cows and their young, the latter only a 

 few days old," but Townsend reports (Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., 1885, P. 93) that "the young 

 that we met with in 1883-4 were dropped at 

 various times from November 1 to February 1." 

 Accounts agree, however, that the young at birth 

 are about four feet long, and as none of our 

 specimens are over five feet in length they can 

 scarcely be more than a few months old at the 

 most. They show considerable discrepancy in 

 size, ranging in weight, on arrival at the Aquar- 

 ium, from 167 to 301 pounds. In form they are 

 very stout and clumsy looking, but, notwith- 

 standing this, they are extremely sinuous in 



