84 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aug 22, 1889. 



THE EARED SEALS.-III. 



OTHER wonderfully interesting accounts of this sea lion 

 have been given us by Mr, Elliott, Capt. Scatnrnons 

 and others, but I must hasten to devote iny remaining 

 space to a brief notice of the northern fur seal or sea 

 bear (CaUorhinus urstnus). 



This animal has nearly the same geographical distribu- 

 tion as has S teller's sea lion, while to those at all inter- 

 ested in our animals, the form, coloration and the mag- 

 nificent pelage of fur of this well-known seal are all too 

 familiar to require my entering upon such details here. 

 These are, moreover, all recalled by the life like sketch 

 of a group of fur seals by Mr. Elliott, herewith repro- 

 duced. 



To Mr. Elliott is due full credit for the most detailed 

 accounts of CaUorhinus. In his work upon the Seal 

 Islands of Alaska we find the most minute descriptions 

 of the external characters of this animal at all ages, 

 while its habits seem to be almost exhaustively treated. 

 Then he has presented us with a long series of sketches 

 from nature of the haunts of the fur seal, with the ani- 

 mal itself in all imaginable attitudes. Some of these 

 sketches are well calculated to impress upon our minds 

 the fabulous numbers that gather at the "rookeries" dur- 

 ing certain seasons; they are packed together and can 

 best be estimated by the acre. Had the present writer 

 not already taxed the generosity of Forest and Stream 



June, however, or thereabouts, the foggy, humid weather 

 of summer sets in, and with it the bull seals come up by 

 hundreds and thousands, and locate themselves in advan- 

 tageous positions for the recpption of the females, which 

 are generally three weeks or a month later, as a rule." 

 Then follow the extraordinary battles of the bulls, with 

 all the strange habits incident thereto. "The sound aris- 

 ing from these great breeding grounds of the fur seal, 

 where thousands upon thousands of angry, vigilant bulls 

 are roaring, chuckling, piping, and multitudes of seal- 

 mothers are calling in hollow, bla-ating tones to their 

 young, which in turn respond incessantly, is simply inde- 

 scribable. It is, at a slight distance, softened into'a deep 

 booming, as of a cataract, and can be heard a long dis- 

 tance off at sea, under favorable circumstances as far as 

 five or six miles," and is constant, night and day, through- 

 out the season. The females begin to arrive in June, and 

 the duties that then devolve upon the bulls are so onerous 

 that the latter are obliged even to entirely abstain from 

 all food and water for a period of several months. Dur- 

 ing this time they are nourished solely by the absorption 

 of adipose of their own bodies, being very fat at first, and 

 woefully lean after the ordeal. 



The cows when they arrive show great gentleness ot 

 disposition as compared with the ferocious, fighling, 

 flesh-tearing bulls. "When they come up, wet and drip- 

 ping, they are of a dull, dirty gray color, darker on the 

 back and upper parts, but in a few hours the transforma- 



season, the amount of punishment that an old bull will 

 stand before he will quit his position, the universal ami- 

 ability of the cows, the extraordinary attitudes they as- 

 sume both on shore and in the water, the birtb and num- 

 bers of the pups, and the behavior toward them by their 

 mothers and the bulls, and their own habits, the disband- 

 ment of the harems later in the season, and the growth 

 and education of the pups, all these points as I say are 

 brought out with an ever-increasing interest, and finally 

 "by the middle of September the rookeries are entirely- 

 broken up, only confused, struggling band- of cows, young 

 bachelors, pups, and small squads of old bulls, crossing 

 and re-crossing the ground in an aimless, listless manner; 

 the season is over, but many of these seals do not leave 

 these grounds until driven off by snow and ice, as late as 

 the end of December and 12th of January." 



I But there still remains the natural history of the thous- 



| ands upon thousands of "holluschukie" or bachelor seals; 



! the consideration of the young females; the most exciting 

 chapters treating of the chase of the fur seal, and the 



i entire history of the fur-sealing trade, preparation and 

 disposition of the skins, and other matters; the enemies 

 of the fur seal and its migrations. It is evident that it 

 will be simply impossible for me even to touch ever so 

 lightly upon these subjects, and the reader will never 



j regret the hours he may spend in reading the works from 

 which I have so extensively quoted. It will be gratifying 



I to the reader to know that after Mr. Elliott's long years 



to the utmost in the matter of figures, some of these 

 sketches might be introduced, but the reader had best 

 seek a copy of the work to which 1 refer and study them 

 all. They are well worth it. It will at once be seen that 

 most striking differences exist between the male and 

 female CaUorhinus in point of form and size. Accord- 

 ing to Ailenan old male will measure between 7 and 8ft. 

 and a full grown female about half that length. A pup 

 a week old is about 1ft. long and weighs between 6 and 

 8lbs., and an old male will weigh nearly 375lbs. , while a 

 female rarely attains to a weight of 90ibs. The great 

 resort of all resorts for the fur seal are the islands com- 

 posing the Prybilov group, and in 1872 Mr. Elliott esti- 

 mated that there were 3,000,000 of them on Saint Paul's 

 Island alone, and probably 163,000 on its neighbor, Saint 

 George's Island, the following year, at a time when an- 

 other separate estimate was made. The fur seat has 

 been written of at greater or less length ever since 1751, 

 when Steller described it in no small detail, both as to its 

 anatomical structure and its habits. In 1817 Peron fir.-t 

 noted its distinction from the fur seal of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, but even tnis was not clearly defined until 

 1859, when Dr. J. E. Gray pointed out the distinctive 

 characters of the two species. In alluding to Elliott's 

 "Seal Islands" Allen says: "The work is nicely illustrated 

 with photographic plates, taken from Mr. Elliott's 

 sketches, about twenty-five of which are devoted to the 

 fur seal. The text of this rare and privately distributed 

 work has since been reprinted with some changes and 

 additions and has been widely circulated. It contains 

 very little relating to the fur seal that is strictly techni- 

 cal, but the general history of its life at the Prybilov 

 Islands is very fully told, while the commercial or eco- 

 nomic phase of the subject is treated at length." 



Fur seals migrate to and from the rookery at St. Paul's 

 Island every season, the males returning in advance, a 

 few vigorous bulls being the first to appear during the 

 early part of May. It is at such times that their locomo- 

 tion on shore and then* wonderfully agile action in the 

 sea can be most favorably studied. In speaking of the 

 rookery to which I have just alluded, Elliott says, "From 

 the time of the first arrivals in May up to the 1st. of June, 

 or as late as the middle of the month, if the weather be 

 clear, is an interval in which everything seems quiet; 

 very few seals are added to the pioneers. By the 1st of 



tion made by drying is wonderful ; you would hardly 

 believe they could be the same animals, for they now 

 fairly glistea with a rich steel and maltese-gray luster on 

 the back of the head, neck and t-pine. which blends into 

 an almost pure white on the chest and abdomen." These 

 females are driven to land at the rookeries from the 

 approach of the period of parturition, their pups being 

 born soon after their landing, shortly after which they 

 receive the. attention of the bulls. 



The landing of the cows has been described by Mr. 

 Elliott in the following word,, he says: "They are no- 

 ticed and received by the bulls on the waterlme station 

 with much attention : they are alternately coaxed and 

 urged up on to the rocks, and are immediately under the 

 most jealous supervision; but owing to the covetous and 

 ambitious nature of the bulls which occupy the stations 

 reaching way back from the waterline, the little cows 

 have a rough-and tumble time of it when they begin to 

 arrive in small numbers at first; for no sooner is the 

 pretty animal fairly establishe ' on the station of bull 

 number one, who has installed her there, he perhaps 

 sees another one of her style down in the water from 

 which she has just come, and in obedience to his polyga- 

 mous feeling, he devotes himself an<>w to coaxing the 

 later arrival in the same winning manner so successful 

 in her case, when bull number two, seeing bull number 

 one off his guard, reaches out with his long strong 

 neck and picks the unhappy but passive creature up by 

 the scruff of hers, just as a cat does a kitten, and de- 

 posits her on his seraglio-ground; then bulls number 

 three, four, and so on, in the vicinity, seeing this high- 

 handed operation, all assail one another, and especially 

 bull number two, and have a tremendous fight, perhaps 

 for half a minute or so, and during this commotion the 

 cow generally is moved or moves further back from the 

 water, two or three stations or more, where, when all 

 gets quiet, she usually remains in peace. Her lord and 

 master, not having the exposure to such diverting temp- 

 tation as had her first, he gives her such care that she 

 not only is unable to leave did she wish, but no other 

 bull can seize upon her." Other points of most engaging 

 study and dwelt upon at length by the entertaining 

 writer just quoted, are the various sizes of the harems 

 with respect to the females in each, the habits of those 

 bulls who fail to secure harems at the beginning of the 



of study of the millions of fur seals that resort every year 

 to the Prybilov Island, and their constant destruction by 

 man, and by their natural enemies in other quarters, he 

 had "no hesitation in saying quite confidently that, under 

 the present rules and regulations governing the sealing 

 interests on these islands, the increase or the diminution 

 of the life will amount to nothing; that the seals will 

 continue for all time in about the same number and con- 

 dition." 



We will pass in our next paper to a brief consideration 

 of the earless seals or the family Phocidm, an enumera- 

 tion of the North American representatives of which I 

 have already presented in a former contribution. 



R. W. Shupeldt. 



THE PLUMED QUAIL OF ARIZONA. 



THE plumed quail are very abundant in the walnut 

 grove valley, some fifty miles south of Prescott. 

 Arizona. The vegetation through this valley is called 

 chapparal or brush, consisting principally of scrub oak 

 and cat-claw. The quail delight in this brush, and dur- 

 ing the heat of the day nearly every second clump con- 

 ceals a covey. 



A novice sportsman, approaching a clump, gun in 

 hand, hears first a subdued note of warning from a more 

 watchful bird; this is repeated by others, giving evi- 

 dence of a large covey in concealment. Our novice now 

 feels the delightful excitement caused by game near at 

 hand, and holding his gun in readiness, approaches 

 warily. He comes nearer, every instant expecting the 

 birds to rise; still nearer and nearer, and there is no 

 movement from the clump. He feels disgusted, thinks 

 he has been deceived in the quail, and lets his gun fall. 

 As he rounds the brush and looks about, some 60ft. off 

 he sees the covey, running daintily and swiftly away; 

 and as the birds see they are discovered , they turn quick- 

 ly behind another thicket. Now our novice is wiser and 

 steps quickly but carefully toward the birds. With a 

 rushing whirr they are up, and he must be a good shot 

 to bring more than one down. Swift as our Eastern 

 quail, if they are old birds they scatter more, and their 

 flight being through thick clusters of bushes, our sports- 

 man may get only a few glimpses of them. 



A covey of these quail as they are running over the 



