1891.] Polygamy Among the Pinnipedia. 105 
information at the disposal of the writer.’ (c) Disposition not 
at all quarrelsome, the animals of both sexes being singularly 
good-natured and peaceable, “ huddling together like so many 
swine,” although they will fight fiercely in defence of their young. 
Cystophora cristata (Hooded Seal). 
(a) Considerable sexual disparity. The male is eight feet 
long, and the female seven feet. Weight of male, 450 pounds; 
of female, 200 pounds. (4) Probably monogamous, although 
there is no direct evidence at hand. There is at least nothing to 
indicate that they are polygamous in the sense used in this paper. 
(c) The males fight fiercely for the possession of the females. 
Erignathus barbatus (Bearded Seal). 
(a) Considerable sexual disparity. Length of male, ten feet; 
length of females, seven feet four inches. Weight of males, two- 
and-one-half times that of females. (4) Strictly polygamous, 
according to the single authority found. (c) Males often have 
Severe battles, the strongest males driving away the younger. 
Macrorhinus angustirostris (Sea Elephant). 
(a) Great sexual disparity. The weight of the male is three- 
and-one-half times that of the female. (4) Polygamous.* Elliott 
Says that they “resemble the sea lions in their breeding habits.” 
(c) The males “fight desperately for the females.” 
Eumetopias stelleri (Steller’s Sea Lion).. 
(2) Great sexual disparity. Length of males, twelve feet; of 
females, eight-and-one-half feet. Weight of male, three times that 
of female. (6) Strictly polygamous. This species maintains a 
regular harem, but “does not maintain any such regular system 
in preparing for and attention to its harem as is illustrated on the 
breeding grounds of the fur seal” (Elliott). (c) “The bulls 
fight savagely among themselves, and turn off from the breed- 
ing ground all the younger and weak males.” 
y Monograph of North American Pinnipeds, p. 107. 
*“ The sea elephants appear to be exceptional among the Phocidæ in the great dis- 
Parity of size between the sexes, in which, as we// as in their breeding habits, they- 
Ty emble the Otaries.” Monograph of North American Pinnipeds (Allen), p. 755- 
j : ine. 
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