78 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
fore llippers. In this manner she l)ronglit it through severcUl pods of pups and groups of females down 
to an old sikatch, a distance of fully 150 feet, where she lies down, but I can not see whether she is 
nursing the imp, as she is down in a hollow. I see, however, that the puT> tries to escape — probably 
wants to go back to play — but is brought back every time. 
Some of these wet matki will stop several minutes in front of four or live pups and nose them 
repeatedly, as if in doubt, before they go away. * * * 
There is a remarkable individual variation in the voice of the females. 
At 1 o’clock p. ui., I moved to the uortheru end of the rookery. Among the notes 
written down there I lind the following: 
The pups were very active, running to and fro, but I could not discover that any of them went 
very far away from where I saw them lirst. On the other hand, females hauling out of the water 
were constantly traveling all over the rookery, calling and bleating. 
Later in the season similar observations were made on the little South Eookery, 
Bering Island (August 17, 1805). The notes then written down also contain some 
reflections of a general nature upon the question. It is hardly necessary to add that 
upon further retlection I still adhere to the opinion then expressed — an opinion which 
may possibly have some weight, written as it was m plain view of the seals it refers 
to. That part of my diary reads as follows: 
I was able to get very close to the grounds, which were occupied by mothers and pups only. A 
good many of the latter were in the water, but there was also quite a large pod of smaller ymps at 
the posterior edge of the herd [near the i)lace where I was watching]. I was again impressed, .as 
before on Kishotclmaya, by the action of the females and pups when the fi)rmer haul up from the 
water and go in search of the young to nurse it. The ground is here so small that it is a compara- 
tively easy task for the mother to lind its young, and I consequently observed several dripping- wet 
cows nursing pups. The mother in coming out of the water made stivaight for the pod of pups and 
the usual performance of pups rushing up .and, upon being nosed at critically, refused, whereupon her 
search continued, was gone through. 
So much is absolutely certain, th.at the females do not nurse the pups promiscuously. I .am 
thoroughly convinced by what I have seen that the mother wanders considerable distances and spends 
much time in searching for her own individual child. AVhether a mother who had searched in vain 
for a long time, and wdiose milk was pressing her very strongly, might not lin.allygive in to the impor- 
tunities of a particularly hungry pup is a question which it will probably never be possible to answer 
definitely, but I think such cases [if they occur] .are the exceptions; the rule is certainly the reverse. 
To the above I need add but little by way of argument. Persons who reject it on 
purely theoretical grounds have adduced much testimony to show how some other 
animals do not discriminate between their own young and those of other mothers, but 
anyone who has studied the habits of wild animals will know how utterly futile such 
an argument is, and how absurd it is to conclude from one species what are the 
habits of another. 
I may ttnalljq however, call attention to the fact that the opinion here held has of 
late received strong confirmation. I refer to the thousand of starving pups of late 
years found on the rookeries; for if the females were willing to nurse the pups of otber 
mothers as well as their own there would seem to be no reason at all why any pups 
should starve to death. 
MORTALITY OF PUPS. 
The above reflection leads me to the question of the mortality of pups on the 
rookeries. With the reports of the appalling loss of ]>ui)s on the Pribylof Islands 
fresh in my mind, one of the first inquiries I made on Bering Island, upon my arrival, 
naturally was whether any unusual mortality had been observed there. 
