342 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE, 
been published on the subject. This is the elaborate 
work of Mr. Joel Asaph Allen : 1 — 
From the time of the first arrivals in May up to the 1st of 
June, as late as the middle of this 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 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 advantageous positions for the reception 
of the females, which are from three weeks to a month later, 
as a rule. The labour of locating and maintaining a position 
in the rookery is really a serious business for those bulls which 
come in last, and for those that occupy the water-line, frequently 
resulting in death from severe wounds in combat sustained. It 
appears to be a well understood principle among the able-bodied 
bulls that each one shall remain undisturbed on his ground, 
which is usually about ten feet square, provided he is strong 
enough to hold it against all comers; for the crowding in of fresh 
bulls often causes the removal of those who, though equally able- 
bodied at first, have exhausted themselves by fighting earlier, 
and are driven by the fresher animals back further and higher 
up on the rookery. Some of these bulls show wonderful 
strength and courage. I have marked one veteran, who was 
among the first to take up his position, and that one on the 
water-line, when at least fifty or sixty desperate battles were 
fought victoriously by him with nearly as many different seals 
who coveted his position ; and when the fighting season was 
over (after the cows have mostly all hauled up) I saw him 
covered with scars and gashes, raw and bloody, an eye gouged 
out, but holding it bravely over his harem of fifteen or twenty 
cows, all huddled together on the same spot he had first chosen. 
The fighting is mostly or entirely done with the mouth, the 
opponents seizing each other with the teeth and clenching 
the jaws; nothing but sheer strength can shake them loose, and 
that effort almost always leaves an ugly wound, the sharp canines 
tearing out deep gutters in the skin and blubber, or shredding 
the flippers into ribbon-strips. They usuallv approach each 
other with averted heads and a great many false passes before 
either one or the other takes the initiative by gripping ; the 
heads are darted out and back as quick as flash, their hoarse 
roaring and shrill piping whistle never ceases, while their fat 
1 History of the North American Pinnipeds . The quotations are 
taken from pp. 348 to 361. 
