170 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
HABITS OF SOME WEST COAST SEALS 
By a. Brazier Howell 
Recently, I had occasion to look up information on certain seals in 
the classical works by Scammon and Allen and I find that some notes 
I have on the habits of two of our southern California species may 
prove of interest. 
Practically all of my notes on the pinnipeds were made before I 
took an active interest in mammals, but I had some little opportunity 
to become familair with them, for, while working in 1910 with the 
International Fisheries Company in Lower California, Mexico, I spent 
two months, with a dozen Yaqui Indians, on Los Coronados Islands. 
Seals of two species were abundant, and as our constant diet of fish 
and spiny lobsters soon palled, we began weekly visits to the rookeries 
to obtain fat yearlings. In addition, I made many other trips to the 
different islands, and spent many an hour watching the herds from hid- 
den retreats. 
The California sea lion {Zalophus calif ornianus) is abundant in the 
coastal waters of southern California, but to me, it has always seemed 
a sluggish, rather uninteresting animal which hardly repays protracted 
watching. An hour or two spent in a rookery will reveal little but 
basking animals, some occasionally slipping into or out of the water, 
and the proper complement of pups nosing about in a stupid manner. 
On June 3, 1910, the pups — two score of them — were a week or more 
old and when we suddenly rushed the colony to obtain a yearling 
before he could slip into the water, the younger animals were not 
greatly concerned as long as we approached no nearer than about 
fifteen feet. They presented, when beating a retreat, a most ludicrous 
appearance, for their efforts were out of all proportion to the speed 
attained, and they worked so hard, and progressed so slowly, that 
they seemed almost to be jumping up and down in one spot. When 
we laid hold of one, it emitted a loud, staccato bleating, comparable 
to the noise made by certain exotic goats which I have heard in zoolog- 
ical parks. The pups readily take to the water at this age, but their 
swimming is poor and their actions in this direction quite similar to those 
when ‘Tunning’’ on land. In fact, it was so apparent that immersion 
in a rough sea at such a tender age must prove fatal to many, that we 
molested them as little as possible thereafter. While we were in the 
rookery, the females exhibited considerable anxiety, racing back and 
