saves herself this trouble by ejecting Squirrels or Woodpeckers, and
occupying the vacant dwellings. For its size it is, like all the
_Mustelidæ_, extremely ferocious and strong. It attacks and kills
Fawns, notwithstanding their superior size; from these down to mice,
nothing comes amiss to it, and nothing is safe from its attacks.

The Beech Marten, or Stone Marten (_Mustela foina_), differs from the
foregoing species in certain characters of the skull and teeth, as well
as in the fact that the throat is white instead of yellow. Its habits
are, on the whole, similar to those of the Pine Marten, but it is more
often found away from woods, on the sides of mountains and rocks, or
in the neighbourhood of farms. Its general distribution is the same
as that of the Pine Marten, but it is decidedly more common than the
latter in Great Britain.

THE PEKAN.[167]

The Pekan, or Pennant’s Marten, is a North American species. It is
much larger than either of the preceding, the body attaining a length
of thirty inches from snout to root of tail, while the tail itself is
about sixteen inches long. The face is more Dog-like than that of the
Common Marten; the skin is brown, becoming lighter in the front part of
the back, and presenting white patches on the chest and belly.

Like the Pine Marten, it is a good climber, but, unlike it, shows
a partiality, not for the driest parts of the wood, but for the
neighbourhood of water. Its chief food seems to be Mice, but it is also
fond of stealing the fish used to bait traps--whence it is often called
the Fisher--and Sir J. Richardson states that its favourite meal is the
Canadian Porcupine, which it kills by a bite on its unprotected belly,
and eats, notwithstanding the quills. Sometimes it is forced, by want
of better food, to eat beech-nuts.

THE SABLE.[168]

This is another species of the same genus, important from the fact that
it is the most valuable of the fur-producing animals. Its skin seems
to have been even more precious in former times than now. A writer in
the sixteenth century states that “forty of the best quality, which is
the quantity usually packed in one bale, have been sold for more than a
thousand pieces of gold.”

The Sable is found in the northern parts of Asia, being especially
abundant between the Lena and Kamstchatka. It differs markedly from the
true Martens in the form of its head, which is conical, the apex of the
cone being formed by the pointed snout, while from its base project the
pointed, and, for a _Mustela_, large ears. The legs and feet, too, are
larger and stronger than in the other species of this genus.

Sable-hunting is, naturally, a very important branch of industry, and
forms the chief occupation of many of the Siberian tribes. The work is
by no means an easy one; it entails miles of travelling in dark woods
and through heavy snow-storms; the track of the Sables may have to be
followed for long distances; and numerous traps must be skilfully set
and visited daily. With all his trouble, the hunter often finds that
“an Arctic Fox, or some other Carnivore, has eaten up the costly booty,
leaving only a few fragments, as if for the express purpose of showing
him how narrowly he has escaped earning forty, fifty, or sixty silver
roubles.”

The American Sable (_Mustela americana_), often called the Marten, is
a closely allied species. It attains a length of eighteen inches, not
including the tail, which measures about a foot more. Its capture gives
the American trapper his staple occupation. It “is ordinarily captured
in wooden traps of very simple construction made on the spot. The traps
are a little enclosure of stakes or brush, in which the bait is placed
upon a trigger, with a short upright stick, supporting a log of wood.
The animal is shut off from the bait in any but the desired direction,
and the log falls upon its victim with the slightest disturbance. A
line of such traps, several to the mile, often extends many miles. The
bait is any kind of meat, squirrel, piece of flesh, or bird’s head.
One of the greatest obstacles that the Sable-hunter has to contend
with in many localities is the persistent destruction of his traps by
the Wolverene and Pekan.... I have accounts from Hudson’s Bay trappers
of a Sable road fifty miles long, containing 150 traps, every one of
which was destroyed through the whole line twice--once by a Wolf, once
by a Wolverene. When thirty miles of the same road were given up, the
remaining forty traps were broken five or six times in succession by
the latter animal.”[169]

[Illustration: SABLE.]

THE COMMON WEASEL.[170]

The Weasel, like the remaining members of the genus _Putorius_, are
very often called “vermiform,” and a better name could scarcely be
applied to them, for anything more worm-like could hardly be imagined
in a hairy quadruped. The legs are extremely short in relation to the
body, which is attenuated in the highest degree, and almost regularly
cylindrical from one end to the other. Then the neck is of most
disproportionate length, and carries the head out so far, that the
fore legs appear as if placed quite at the hinder end of the chest,
instead of in the front of it. The head passes almost insensibly into
the neck, and the neck into the body. The head is flattened, and bears
little glittering savage-looking eyes, and small rounded ears. The
length from snout to root of tail does not exceed eight inches. The
tail is about two inches long. The fur is light reddish-brown above,
and white below; in northern latitudes the brown parts assume a much
lighter colour in winter, so that the Weasel undergoes a change of coat
similar to, but less extensive than, that undergone by the Ermine.

[Illustration: COMMON WEASEL.]

The Weasel is a good climber, and makes use of its skill in this
accomplishment to prey upon birds, their eggs, and young. Rats and
Mice are, perhaps, its staple food. Of these it makes great havoc, and
is therefore a useful hanger-on to the farm-yard, notwithstanding its
occasional depredations in the hen-roost. When it catches a Mouse or
Rat, it gives it one bite on the back of the head, piercing the most
vulnerable part of the brain, and killing instantly. Professor Thomas
Bell says:--“I have observed that when a Weasel seizes a small animal,
at the instant that the fatal bite is inflicted, it throws its long,
lithe body over its prey, so as to secure it should the first bite
fail, an accident, however, which I have never observed when a Mouse
has been the victim. The power which the Weasel has of bending the head
at right angles with the long and flexible, though powerful neck, gives
it a great advantage in this mode of seizing and killing its smaller
prey.” The first part eaten is usually the brain. The stories of the
Weasel’s blood-sucking propensities are probably false, or at any rate
grossly exaggerated.

The Weasel will pursue its prey over fields, in trees, in subterranean
burrows, or across water. Like many of the wild Cats, it kills far
more than is necessary for its support, and in pursuance of its
favourite occupation of slaughter shows an unequalled courage and
pertinacity. Its power of keeping its presence of mind under very
trying circumstances is well shown in the following anecdote related
by Bell:--A gentleman, “while riding over his grounds, saw at a
short distance from him a Kite pounce on some object on the ground,
and rise with it in his talons. In a few moments, however, the Kite
began to show signs of great uneasiness, rising rapidly in the air,
or as quickly falling, and wheeling irregularly round, whilst it was
evidently endeavouring to force some obnoxious thing from it with
its feet. After a sharp but short contest, the Kite fell suddenly to
the earth, not far from where Mr. Pindar was intently watching the
manœuvre. He instantly rode up to the spot, when a Weasel ran away from
the Kite, apparently unhurt, leaving the bird dead, with a hole eaten
through the skin under the wing, and the large blood-vessels of the
part cut through.”

THE ERMINE.[171]

The Stoat, or Ermine, is an important species closely allied to the
Weasel, from which it differs chiefly by its greater size, and by the
peculiarities of its colouring. In summer the upper parts vary from
yellowish-brown to mahogany brown, while the under side is white tinged
with sulphur-yellow, except on the throat, which is pure white. The
tail is tipped with black. The brown upper and white under surfaces are
separated by a perfectly distinct line of demarcation, which extends
from the snout to the root of the tail, dipping down at the limbs, so
as to include the outer surfaces of the latter in the dark area. In
winter, on the other hand, the skin is, with the exception of the tip
of the tail, which always remains black, pure white, tinged here and
there with sulphur-yellow. Intermediate states between full winter
dress and full summer dress are often found, and these, curiously
enough, show their half-way character in two ways. Sometimes there is
an alteration in level of the line of demarcation between the white
and brown portions of the skin, the latter being occasionally found
restricted to a narrow strip along the back, but remaining still
without any admixture of white hairs. In other cases, again, the
line of demarcation remains unaltered, but the dark portions become
gradually lighter and lighter, until the final white dress is assumed.

As to the interesting question of the exact manner and cause of
this change, it is sometimes stated that the direct influence of
cold produces a rapid lightening in the colour of individual hairs,
while there are also facts to show that the change is not due to an
alteration in colour of existing hairs, but to a renewal of the coat,
the hairs of one colour being replaced by those of the other. Dr.
Elliott Coues, who has worked up the subject in an able and exhaustive
manner, has satisfied himself that the change may take place in either
way. Some of his specimens, “notably those taken in spring, show the
long woolly white coat of winter in most places, and in others present
patches--generally a streak along the back--of shorter, coarser,
thinner hair, evidently of the new spring coat, wholly dark-brown.
Other specimens, notably autumnal ones, demonstrate the turning to
white of existing hairs, these being white at the roots for a varying
distance, and tipped with brown. These are simple facts not open to
question. We may safely conclude that if the requisite temperature be
experienced at the periods of renewal of the coat, the new hairs will
come out of the opposite colour; if not, they will appear of the same
colour, and afterwards change; that is, the change may or may not be
coincident with shedding. That it ordinarily is not so coincident seems
shown by the greater number of specimens in which we observe white
hairs brown-tipped. As Mr. Bell contends, temperature is the immediate
controlling agent. This is amply proven in the fact that the northern
animals always change; that in those from intermediate latitudes the
change is incomplete, while those from farther south do not change at
all.” The advantage of the change to the animal is manifest; its colour
becomes that of the snow over which it travels in pursuit of game, so
that it is less easily seen and avoided. Unfortunately for it, however,
a similar “protective colouring” is adopted by some of its victims.

[Illustration: WEASEL (1) AND ERMINE (2) IN THEIR WINTER CLOTHING.]

The habits of the Stoat resemble those of the Weasel; it is dangerous
both to the sheep-fold and to the poultry-yard, but partly atones for
its poaching by the immense number of Rats and Mice it is capable of
destroying. Audubon relates that he “once placed a half-domesticated
Ermine in an outhouse infested with Rats, shutting up the holes on the
outside to prevent their escape. The little animal soon commenced its
work of destruction. The squeaking of the Rats was heard throughout the
day. In the evening it came out, licking its mouth, and seemed like
a hound after a long chase, much fatigued. A board of the floor was
raised to enable us to ascertain the result of our experiment, and an
immense number of Rats were observed, which, although they had been
killed in different parts of the building, had been dragged together,
forming a compact heap.”

Both Weasel and Ermine are found over the greater part of Northern
Europe, Asia, and America.

THE POLECAT.[172]

In form this animal does not differ very markedly from the Marten,
except for the fact that its head is broader, its snout blunter, and
its tail very much shorter: the latter being about five and a half
inches, while the head and body together are nearly a foot and a half
long. The neck is considerably shorter, and the body stouter than
in the Weasel and Stoat. The fur is made up of hairs of two kinds,
the shorter woolly and of a yellowish colour, the longer black or
brownish-black and shining. One of its most marked characters is its
horrible stench. This is produced, like the scent of the Civets, in a
pair of glands near the root of the tail, which secrete a yellowish
creamy substance of the most fetid character.

[Illustration: SKULL OF POLECAT. (_After Coues._)]

The Polecat is also known as the Fitchet (Fitchew of Shakspere),
Foumart, or Foulimart: the latter names are said to be a contraction of
“Foul Marten,” thus distinguishing it from the Common or Sweet Marten,
which is a comparatively inodorous animal. The name Polecat is probably
a contraction of Polish Cat.

The Polecat is perhaps even more destructive than the other Mustelidæ,
and is certainly a far greater plague to the farmer. Its ravage
among Rabbits, Hares, and Partridges is immense, and if once it gets
unobserved into a poultry-yard, the fate of a very considerable
number of the inmates is sealed, as it possesses in a high degree
the family love of slaughter for slaughter’s sake. It has been known
to kill as many as sixteen Turkeys in a single night; and, indeed,
it seems a point of honour with this bloodthirsty little creature to
kill everything it can overpower, and to leave no survivors on its
battlefields. It has, too, an unfortunate liking for eggs, as well
as for game and poultry, and in this way alone does great harm to
preserves. There are also many accounts of its fondness of fish; Bell
also quotes an instance in which a female Polecat was pursued to her
nest, and was found to have laid up, in a side hole, a store of food,
consisting of forty Frogs and two Toads, all of which she had skilfully
“pithed,” that is, bitten through the brain, so that, although
retaining a certain amount of vitality, they were effectually prevented
from running away!

[Illustration: 1. POLECAT. 2. FERRET.]

The Polecat is found throughout Northern Europe, not extending
southwards into the warmer parts of the Continent, but being quite at
home in snow-covered regions. It is essentially, like the Marten, a
sub-arctic and temperate animal.

THE FERRET.[173]

This is a domesticated variety of the genus _Putorius_, of African
origin. It shows its Southern nature by being, unlike the Polecat,
unable to endure great cold; even an English winter is enough to kill
it if not properly housed. It is an interesting animal, zoologically,
from the fact that it is a true-breeding Albino, having the white fur
and pink eyes of that peculiar “sport.” It is a little smaller than the
Polecat, with which it will breed with perfect readiness, producing
hybrids intermediate in character between the two parent species.

Ferrets are much used, both in Britain and America, chiefly for killing
Rats and for driving Rabbits out of their burrows. For the latter
function the Ferret is muzzled, to prevent its killing the Rabbit in
the burrow; the latter is either netted or killed immediately, as soon
as it is driven out. The Ferret is also frequently employed to kill
fowls for the table. Its particularly neat method of slaughtering by
one bite in the neck is much admired by Ferret-fanciers, who make quite
a pet of the animal. It, however, never shows the slightest affection
for its master, and has usually to be confined: the necessity of this
is shown in an instance, quoted by Bell, in which a child was attacked
in its cradle, and only rescued after the veins of its neck had been
severed, its face, neck, and arms lacerated, and its eyes so injured
that the sight of one of them was permanently lost.

THE MINK.[174]

This important fur-producing animal is found in the northern parts of
both hemispheres under various specific forms, the most important of
which are the European Mink (_P. lutreola_) and the American Mink (_P.
vison_). Although most nearly allied to the Stoats and Weasels, it
shows a certain resemblance to the Martens in its larger and stouter
body, which attains a length of from fifteen to eighteen inches, the
tail being about seven or eight inches long, and bushy at the tip. Like
most of its allies, it has two kinds of fur--“a soft matted under fur,
mixed with long, stiff, lustrous hairs.” The colour varies from dull
yellowish-brown to dark chocolate-brown; the upper lip is usually white
in the European, dark in the American species. The scent-glands are
well developed, and their secretion is second only in offensiveness to
that of the Skunk.

The habits of the Mink differ altogether from those of the other
species of the genus. As Dr. Coues observes, “It is to the water what
the other Weasels are to the land, or the Martens to the trees. It is
as essentially aquatic in its habits as the Otter, Beaver, or Musk Rat,
and spends, perhaps, more of its time in the water than it does on
land. In adaptation to this mode of life, the pelage has that peculiar
glossiness of the longer bristly hairs and felting of the close under
fur which best resists the water.” It feeds chiefly upon aquatic or
amphibious animals, such as fish, frogs, crayfish, molluscs, and the
like, but also preys largely upon the smaller Mammals. It is stated
that it is not an indiscriminate slaughterer, but kills only what is
necessary for its actual wants.

In America the Mink has been regularly domesticated and trained as
a Rat-catcher, like the Ferret. “Minkeries” have been established
in connection with farm-yards, and have proved in more than one
instance eminently successful. The animals soon allow themselves to be
handled, and besides becoming good Ratters, bring their owner a very
considerable profit by their fur, for which alone it is well worth
while to breed them, as the expense of keeping them is trifling.

THE GRISON.[175]

This is a Weasel-like animal, found only in South America, and
distinguished from its nearest relations, the Martens and Weasels,
by the fact that the colour of the upper is lighter than that of the
lower surface of its body, the former being grey, the latter dark
brown. Its whole length is rather under a yard; of this not more than
a third is taken up by the tail. It is found in plantations and in the
neighbourhood of buildings, and makes its abode in hollow trees, clefts
in rocks, and holes in the earth.

As to its disposition, some notion may be gained from a tale told by
Bell of a tame specimen in his possession. He says that it “was very
fond of Frogs, but these were not the only animals which were obnoxious
to its voracity. On one occasion, in the winter, I had placed it in its
cage, in a room with a fire, where I had also two young Alligators,
which in general were stupidly tame. On going into the room in the
morning, I found the Grison at large, and one of the Alligators dead,
with a hole eaten under the fore-leg, where the great nerves and
blood-vessels were torn through; and the other Alligator began snapping
furiously at every one who attempted to approach it.”

[Illustration: GRISON.]

THE TAYRA.[176]

This animal may be considered without exaggeration to be one of the
ugliest in the whole Carnivorous order. It is not unlike the Marten
in shape, but of a dark brown colour, and with a low, villainous, and
almost debauched expression of face. The head and body together attain
a length of rather more, the tail of rather less, than half a yard. The
colour of the pelage is dark blackish-brown, becoming lighter on the
head and neck, on the under surface of which there is a yellowish spot.
It is found, like the Grison, in South America, where it extends from
Brazil and British Guiana in the north to Paraguay in the south.

It lives in forests, preying upon small mammals and birds, and does
its hunting chiefly in the morning, starting for work at sunrise, and
returning about midday.

THE RATEL.[177]

This animal, sometimes known as the Honey Badger, is one of the
exceptional animals whose colour is lighter above than below. Its
stiff, wiry hair is ashy-grey on the upper surface, while on the
under surface, the muzzle, limbs, and tail are black. The line of
demarcation between the grey and black is so sharp, that the animal
has the appearance of being really black, but covered, as to its back,
with a grey cloak. It is about three-quarters of a yard long, the tail
taking up about a sixth of the length. In the matter of teeth it is
interesting, as its molars are reduced to one on each side in each jaw:
a reduction equal to that found in the Cats.

It is said to live largely on Bees, and to show a great amount of skill
in tracking to their nest the insects which it observes on the wing.
Sparrmann states that it seats itself on a hillock to look out for the
Bees, and shades its eyes with one fore-paw against the rays of the
setting sun.

[Illustration: RATEL.]

It is a stupid animal, very sleepy during the day, and issuing from its
burrows at sunset to seek for the birds, tortoises, insects, and worms
on which it feeds. It is very tenacious of life, and is well protected
from attacks by the thickness and looseness of its skin, and the thick
subcutaneous layer of fat. It also possesses an additional means, if
not of defence, at least of offence, in its tail glands, the secretion
of which is very strong and pungent as to its odour. It is still
further advantaged by its burrowing powers; it will scratch up a hole,
and disappear into it in an incredibly short space of time.

The Ratels in the Zoological Gardens in Regent’s Park (where the habits
of all the animals will repay the study of the most casual observer)
exhibit a remarkable peculiarity. We have very frequently watched one
of them run round and round his cage in the usual purposeless manner
of captive animals, but with this peculiarity: when he reached a
particular corner of the den, he quietly, and without effort, turned
over head and heels, and then went on again. On one occasion, after he
had been doing this with great regularity for some rounds, he seemed to
become abstracted, and passed the usual spot without the somersault.
When, however, he had proceeded a few paces, he recollected himself,
stopped for a moment, returned to the exact place, turned over as
usual, and proceeded without further let or hindrance.

There are two species of Ratel, one, the Cape Ratel (_Mellivora
capensis_), occurs in South Africa, the other, or Indian Ratel (_M.
indica_), being found in India.

THE COMMON BADGER.[178]

The Badger is the largest of the indigenous Carnivora of Great Britain;
for although the length of its body is not quite equal to that of the
Fox, in bulk it far exceeds the slender and active Reynard. It is,
indeed, a heavy and somewhat clumsy animal, long and stout-bodied, and
short-legged, with a tapering and mobile snout, and a short scrubby
tail. The long hair is of three colours: black, white, and reddish, the
mingling of the three producing a varying grey hue. The head is white,
except for a black band on each side, which commences a little behind
the nose, and extends backwards, including the eye and ear, the tip of
the latter being, however, white. The lower parts of the body and the
legs are black, the tail grey. The length of the body from snout to
root of tail is about two feet three inches; that of the tail, seven
inches and a half.

It is fond of retired places, such as sheltered woods, and in them
it makes for itself a large burrow or earth “which has but a single
entrance from without, but afterwards divides into different chambers,
and terminates in a round apartment at the bottom, which is well lined
with dry grass and hay.” The Badger is consequently a very skilful
digger, and for this purpose is possessed of strong curved claws. Its
diet is completely mixed: it eats roots, fruit, eggs, small mammals,
frogs, insects, &c. It is quite susceptible of domestication, and is
said to show a vast amount of affection and good temper. As to its
habits, we cannot do better than quote an excellent account of some
half-domesticated Badgers given in a letter to _The Times_ by Mr.
Alfred Ellis, of Loughborough:--“About ten years since, the Badger
was established here, but it was not until the third attempt that my
efforts prospered. The Badgers then introduced, or their successors,
have bred every year, and as not more than one pair remain in permanent
occupation it is probable that there are many more of these animals
in this country than is generally supposed; but their shyness, their
colour, and the short time they require to obtain their food, and
the recesses of the woods in which they delight to dwell, make it no
easy task to study their life and habits. The deep earth in which our
Badgers live is only fifty yards from the window at which I write.
The building of this house two years ago did not disturb them, and
they have shown an increasing confidence and trust. The Badger breeds
later than the Fox, and it was the middle of March this year before
the preparations for the coming family were made. These consisted in
cleaning out the winter bed, and replacing it by a quantity of dry
fern and grass, so great that it would seem impossible the earth could
receive it. In June the first young Badger appeared at the mouth of the
earth, and was soon followed by three others, and then by their mother.
After this, they continued to show every evening, and soon learnt to
take the food prepared for them. The young are now almost full grown,
and, forgetting their natural timidity, will feed so near that I have
placed my hand on the back of one of them. The old ones are more wary,
but often feed with their family, though at a more cautious distance.
Their hearing and sense are most acute, and it is curious to see them
watch, with lifted head and ears erect, then, if all is quiet, search
the ground for a raisin or a date. But the least strange sight or sound
alarms them, and they rush headlong to earth with amazing speed.

“The Badger, like the Bear, treads upon the whole heel, and its walk
closely resembles that animal. They caress each other in the same
grotesque manner while they gambol and play, and at times they utter
a cry so loud as to startle any one ignorant of its source. It is
not unlike the chatter of the Stoat, but many times louder. On fine
evenings we can watch them dress their fur-like coats, or do kind
offices for each other, and search for parasites after the manner of
Monkeys. No creature is more cleanly in its habits. Over their earth
hangs a birch-tree, from which grows a horizontal bough eighteen inches
from the ground. On this they scrape their feet in dirty weather, and
keep their house inodorous by depositing their excrement at one place
for many months and covering it with earth. The hibernation of the
Badger is not like that of the Hedgehog--continuous and complete--but
is irregular, and is probably influenced by the character of the
winter. I have known the mouth of the earth covered with a coat of snow
for fourteen days, and it might have been much longer before they came
forth, while they may sometimes be tracked in a thin snow for a long
distance.”

[Illustration: BADGER.]

“As the winter approaches, the old bedding is replaced by dry fern and
grass, raked together by their powerful claws. This is often left to
wither in little heaps till dry enough for their purpose. Partially
concealed, I have watched a Badger gathering fern and using a force in
its collection quite surprising.

“Bell, in his ‘Quadrupeds’ quotes Buffon as stating that Badgers are
fond of Wasps’ nests. This is true, for, like the Bear, they love honey
and sweet food. I once heard a pair of Badgers fighting, and crept upon
the ground until within a few yards of the angry conflict, but the
bracken hid them from view. Next morning I visited the place. A Wasps’
nest had been stormed and eaten; very little of the comb remained, and
not a dozen homeless Wasps. That summer I myself saw the wrecks of
seven Wasps’ nests taken by the Badgers in one field, and this autumn
they are digging out every one they can find.

“The Badger and the Fox are not unfriendly, and last spring a litter of
cubs was brought forth very near the Badgers; but their mother removed
them after they had grown familiar, as she probably thought they were
showing themselves more than was prudent.”[179]

Although far from common, the Badger is found in many parts of Great
Britain and on the Continent. Closely allied species occur over a great
part of Northern Europe and Asia.

In former times it was in great requisition for the so-called sport of
“Badger-baiting,” in which charming and refined amusement the unhappy
animal was put into a barrel and attacked by an unlimited number of
Dogs, amongst whom it was often able to do considerable execution,
thanks to its sharp teeth and powerful jaws.

THE AMERICAN BADGER.[180]

The distinction between this species and the European Badger consists
chiefly in the shorter and more hairy character of the snout, and in
the fact that the body is of a uniform whitish hue, sometimes shaded
with grey or tawny. The body and head together are about twenty-four
inches long, the tail six inches. It is found throughout the greater
part of North America.

In its shyness, its general mode of life, and its habits, it differs
but slightly from the Common Badger. Although in many parts it is
so numerous that its burrows form a very serious obstacle to the
traveller, yet it is a comparatively rare thing to see a specimen, so
immediately does it retire to its strongholds on the first intimation
of man’s approach. It can, however, be trapped without much difficulty,
and thousands are caught in this way every year. In 1873 the Hudson’s
Bay Company sold 2,700 in London alone. Dr. Coues quotes an interesting
account of the habits of a captive Badger. He says:--“In running, his
fore-feet crossed each other, and his body nearly touched the ground.
The heel did not press on the ground like that of the Bear, but was
only slightly elevated above it.... We have never seen any animal that
could exceed him in digging. He would fall to work with his strong
feet and long nails, and in a minute bury himself in the earth, and
would very soon advance to the end of a chain ten feet in length. In
digging, the hind as well as the fore-feet were at work, the latter for
the purpose of excavating, and the former (like paddles) for expelling
the earth out of the hole; and nothing seemed to delight him more than
burrowing in the ground. He seemed never to become weary of this kind
of amusement; and when he had advanced to the end of his chain he would
return and commence a fresh gallery near the mouth of his first hole.
Thus he would be occupied for hours, and it has been necessary to drag
him away by main force. He lived on good terms with the Racoon, Grey
Fox, Prairie Wolf, and a dozen other species of animals. He was said to
be active and playful at night, but he seemed rather dull during the
day, usually lying rolled up like a ball, with his head under his body
for hours at a time.”

THE TELEDU.[181]

This animal, sometimes called the “stinking Badger,” is found only
in Java and Sumatra, and in those islands only on mountains having
an elevation of more than 7,000 feet above the sea. It is a little
more than a foot long; has a pig-like head, a stout body, very short
legs, and a stumpy tail, not more than an inch long. The feet are
plantigrade. It is of a dark brown colour, with the exception of a
white band running along its back. But one of its chief characteristics
is its power of ejecting, from its tail-glands, a volatile fluid, the
odour of which is said to be even as bad as that of the Skunk.

The Teledu lives in burrows during the day, and comes out at night to
seek its food, which consists chiefly of earth-worms, insects, and
their larvæ.

THE CAPE ZORILLA.[182]

An ally both of the Skunks and Badgers, the Zorilla may be said to take
the place of the former animals in Africa, through the whole of which
continent it extends, reaching also into Asia Minor. The body, which
attains a length of about a foot, is moderately stout, of a shining
black ground-colour, and marked with white bands and spots. The snout
is elongated like that of the South American Skunk (_vide infra_); the
tail is bushy, about eight or nine inches long, and striped or spotted.

The Zorilla lives upon small mammals, birds, and their eggs, as well
as amphibia and crustacea. It is a determined enemy to poultry, and
entails great loss to the inhabitants of the districts where it
is found, but is often tamed, and used to catch Rats and Mice. In
the matter of scent, the secretion in its tail-glands is worthy of
comparison with that of the Skunk itself.

An allied form is the Indian genus _Helictis_, a Weasel-like animal
with a long body, and of a grey-brown colour, white underneath, and
marked along the back with a white stripe. The tail is long and bushy.
This animal is found from Nepaul to Java in the south, and Formosa in
the east.

THE COMMON SKUNK.[183]

This notorious American species is a stoutly-built animal, with short
legs, a long conical head with a truncated snout, and a long bushy
tail. The general colour of the fur is black, or nearly so, but on
the forehead there is a white streak, and on the neck a white patch,
from which two broad bands of the same hue proceed backwards along the
upper surface of the body. The length from tip of snout to root of
tail is something over a foot; the tail itself is less than a foot in
length. The general appearance of the animal is decidedly Badger-like;
it has, in fact, a good deal of resemblance both to the Ratel and to
the Teledu. As in the Weasel, Ermine, and Polecat, there is one molar
on each side of the upper, two on each side the lower jaw; altogether
there are thirty-four teeth. It occurs throughout the whole of the
temperate portion of North America.

We have mentioned that several of the Weasel family enjoy the
distinction of being able to eject a foul-smelling fluid from glands at
the root of the tail. In this accomplishment the Skunk is the undoubted
chief. It can eject its perfume to a considerable distance, and with
unerring aim: and the smell! The “odour of mingled guano and Polecat,”
which, according to Mr. Kingsley, distinguishes the ancient Cornish
dainty squab-pie, is simply nothing in comparison with the horrible
stench emitted by this little animal. It is so durable, that the spot
where a Skunk has been killed will often retain the scent for days, or
even weeks; indeed, Audubon relates that at one place where a Skunk
had been killed in the autumn, the odour was quite perceptible in
the following spring after the snow had melted. Clothes defiled with
the secretion cannot be thoroughly cleansed by any ordinary means:
for even if the scent seems to have disappeared, it will make itself
evident every time the wearer goes near a fire, or into the sun.
Notwithstanding this, furriers have found out a way for effectually
purifying Skunk-skins, which are now a good deal used as furs. In
Britain, where the Skunk is not known in the flesh, these furs are
called by their right names, but in America, where the inhabitants do
not enjoy the same blissful ignorance of this noxious beast, they are
dignified with the appellation of “Alaska sable.”

[Illustration: SKUNK.]

But the scent of the secretion is not its worst feature. Sir John
Richardson quotes Mr. Graham as saying “that he knew several Indians
who lost their eyesight in consequence of inflammation, produced
by this fluid having been thrown into them by the animal,” and
continues, “I have known a dead Skunk, thrown over the stockades of a
trading-port, produce instant nausea in several women, in a house with
closed doors, upwards of a hundred yards distant.” Dogs often suffer
from inflammation of the eyes after being squirted with the fluid, and
appear to be almost distracted with the pain. Curiously enough, the
secretion has been recommended as a cure for asthma. “The story is told
of an asthmatic clergyman who procured the glands of a Skunk, which he
kept tightly corked in a smelling-bottle, to be applied to his nose
when his symptoms appeared. He believed he had discovered a specific
for his distressing malady, and rejoiced thereat; but on one occasion
he uncorked his bottle in the pulpit, and drove his congregation out of
church.”[184]

The efficacy of the secretion as a defensive weapon for the not
otherwise formidable animal is greatly enhanced by the distance to
which it can be ejected. This is probably as much as twelve or fourteen
feet, while the smell itself can be perceived for a comparatively
immense distance.

Besides its perfume, the Skunk has yet another claim to careful
avoidance: its bite has been known in many cases to produce
hydrophobia, in a form quite indistinguishable, according to an
American surgeon, Dr. Janeway, from that induced by the bite of a rabid
Dog.

An allied species, the Little Striped Skunk,[185] is less than a
foot long, and the tail is shorter than the body. The fur is black,
and marked with numerous white stripes and spots. It is found in the
southern part of the United States, and is said to be readily capable
of domestication, proving very serviceable as a Mouser. Of course,
under these circumstances, the glands are removed while the animal is
young.

The White-backed Skunk[186] is the South American form of the genus.
It occurs throughout that Continent as well as in Mexico and the
south-western portions of the United States. It is much larger than the
northern species, attaining a length of from eighteen inches to two
feet, and is further distinguished by its short white tail, which does
not exceed nine or ten inches in length, its pig-like snout projecting
a full inch beyond the mouth, and its white back sometimes marked by a
median black stripe. The rest of the fur is, as usual, black.

Our friend, Mr. Purdie, whose acquaintance with the Skunk in South
America has been of the most practical kind, assures us that when about
to discharge its secretion, the animal invariably faces round, so as
to look its enemy full in the face, throws its tail over its back,
and allows the breeze to carry the fluid in the desired direction.
This method of discharge seems highly unaccountable, and difficult to
reconcile with the anatomical facts; but it would be certainly going
too far to say that it is impossible. Dr. Coues, who has repeatedly
observed the North American Skunk, states that the animal invariably
turns its back to its intended victim.

THE COMMON OTTER.[187]

[Illustration: UNDER VIEW OF SKULL OF COMMON OTTER. (_After
Coues._)]

We now come to the most thoroughly aquatic of the Fissipedia, the
sub-family of Otters, animals which, although quite capable of active
and unembarrassed movement on land, are yet thoroughly at home only in
the water. In accordance with this mode of life, the toes are webbed,
and provided with very short claws, and the tail is long, tapering,
and flattened, so as to serve the precise purpose of the corresponding
appendage in a fish. The length of the head and body is about two
feet, that of the tail, one foot five inches. The fur is of a soft
brown colour, becoming lighter on the under side of the throat and
the breast, and consists of long, coarse, shining hairs, with a short
under-fur of fine texture, well calculated to preserve equality of
temperature as the animal resorts alternately to land or water. The
skull is greatly elongated, and flattened from above downwards; the
facial part of it is small, as compared with the brain-containing or
cranial part. The region of the skull between the eyes is very narrow,
and its floor is wide and thin. In all these points, save the first
mentioned, the skull of the Otter approaches that of the Seal. As
to the teeth, there is one premolar less on each side of the lower
jaw than in the Martens,[188] and both molars and premolars have
sharp-pointed cusps, quite like those of the other _Mustelidæ_.

[Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF SKULL OF COMMON OTTER. (_After
Coues._)]

The habits of the Otter are so entirely aquatic, that in the good
old times it was thought to be a sort of cross between a beast and a
fish, just as the Bat was thought to be intermediate between a beast
and a bird. So deeply rooted was this opinion that the Otter’s flesh
was considered quite fishy enough to be eaten by devout Catholics on
fast days. To this Izaak Walton alludes in a well-known passage in his
“Complete Angler.”

    “_Piscator._ ‘I pray, honest huntsman, let me ask you a pleasant
    question: do you hunt a beast or a fish?’

    “_Huntsman._ ‘Sir, it is not in my power to resolve you; I leave it
    to be resolved by the College of Carthusians, who have made vows
    never to eat flesh. But I have heard the question hath been debated
    among many great clerks, and they seem to differ about it, yet most
    agree that her tail is fish; and if her body be fish too, then I
    may say that a fish will walk upon land.’”

The movements of the Otters in water are marvellous. They swim about in
families, performing the most astonishing pranks, from mere exuberance
of spirits and excess of energy. Nothing can give a better idea of
their activity, than the description of them in that most delightful of
natural history books and fairy tales, “Water Babies.”

“Suddenly Tom heard the strangest noise up the stream; cooing, and
grunting, and whining, and squeaking, as if you had put into a bag two
Stock Doves, nine Mice, three Guinea-pigs, and a blind puppy, and left
them there to settle themselves and make music. He looked up the water,
and there he saw a sight as strange as the noise; a great ball rolling
over and over down the stream, seeming one moment of soft brown fur,
and the next of shining glass: and yet it was not a ball; for sometimes
it broke up and streamed away in pieces, and then it joined again; and
all the while the noise came out of it louder and louder.

“Tom asked the Dragon-fly what it could be: but, of course, with his
short sight, he could not even see it, though it was not ten yards
away. So he took the neatest little header into the water, and started
off to see for himself; and, when he came near, the ball turned out
to be four or five beautiful creatures, many times larger than Tom,
who were swimming about, and rolling, and diving, and twisting, and
wrestling, and cuddling, and kissing, and biting, and scratching,
in the most charming fashion that ever was seen. And if you don’t
believe me, you may go to the Zoological Gardens (for I am afraid
that you won’t see it nearer, unless, perhaps, you get up at five in
the morning, and go down to Cordery’s Moor, and watch by the great
withy pollard which hangs over the back-water, where the Otters breed
sometimes), and then say, if Otters at play in the water are not the
merriest, lithest, gracefullest creatures you ever saw.”

The Otter makes a sort of nest in hollows in the banks of the river
in which it lives, but does not, as is sometimes stated, construct
complicated burrows: its claws, indeed, are too weak for any such work.
It usually confines itself to rivers, but is sometimes found on the
sea-shore.

Otter hunting was formerly a very favourite sport. It was conducted
with a special breed of Dogs--the Otter-hound--(see p. 141), and the
spear was used for killing the animal when brought to bay.

Otters are quite capable of domestication, and may be taught to catch
fish for their masters. For this purpose they must be caught young,
and gradually brought to live upon bread and milk. When this end is
attained, they are taught to fetch and carry, like a Dog--first sticks,
&c., then a stuffed fish, then a dead one. When this part of their
education is perfect, and they make no attempt to mangle the fish given
to them, they are sent into the water to catch living fish. Otters
are trained for this purpose in India, and also in China, where they
are used by the fishermen of the Yang-tse-kiang. Mr. J. Thomson[189]
says:--“We noticed men fishing with trained Otters in this part of the
river. There were a number of boats, and each boat was furnished with
an Otter tied to a cord. The animal was thrust into the water, and
remained there until it had caught a fish; then it was hauled up, and
the fisherman, placing his foot upon its tail, stamped vigorously until
it had dropped its finny prey.”

There is one peculiar habit of the Canadian Otter[190] which is worthy
of mention. “Their favourite sport is sliding, and for this purpose
in winter the highest ridge of snow is selected, to the top of which
the Otters scramble, when, lying on the belly, with the fore-feet
backwards, they give themselves an impulse with their hindlegs, and
swiftly glide head foremost down the declivity, sometimes for the
distance of twenty yards. This sport they continue apparently with the
keenest enjoyment until fatigue or hunger induces them to desist.”

[Illustration: COMMON OTTERS.]

In the Margined-tailed Otter[191] the skull characters, which we have
mentioned as distinctive of Otters, especially the narrowness of the
region between the eyes, and the shortness of the nasal region, are
so exaggerated, that the animal approaches towards the Sea Otter, of
which we shall speak next. The Margined-tailed Otter, which is found in
Brazil and Surinam, derives its name from a longitudinal ridge on each
side of its conical tail. The fur is of a bright bay-brown colour, both
above and below.

THE SEA OTTER.[192]

[Illustration: SIDE VIEW OF SKULL OF SEA OTTER. (_After
Coues._)]

This interesting animal differs in many important respects from
the Common Otter, and in all such points shows an approximation to
the structure of the Seals. It is a large animal, about three feet
long, not counting the tail, which is about a foot more. Its fur is
dark brown, both on the upper and lower surfaces, and presents a
frosted or silvered appearance, owing to the fact that the long stiff
hairs, which differ greatly from those of the under-fur, are grey or
colourless at the tip. The head is very short, the snout naked; the
eyes extremely small, and placed low down on the sides of the head,
and the whiskers are short, but stout and stiff, and mostly directed
downwards; altogether there is something very Seal-like about the face.
The fore-limbs and feet are small, the paws rather Cat-like in their
rounded form, and the claws are quite hidden by the hair. The hind
feet, on the other hand, are flat and expanded, being no less than six
inches long by four broad, and webbed like a Duck’s feet, or a Seal’s
flippers; they differ, however, from the Seal’s, in the fact that the
toes increase in length from the inner to the outer side; both above
and below they are covered with dense fur, which quite hides the short,
stout claws. The skull is, both in its cranial and facial portions,
much shorter in comparison with its width than in the ordinary Otters;
its base is extremely broad, and both upper and lower jaws bear on each
side only eight teeth, so that there are altogether thirty-two teeth,
or four less than in the Common Otter.[193] This diminution in number
is brought about, as will be seen from the formula below, by reducing
the upper premolars from four to three, and the lower incisors from
three to two on each side. The form of the grinders differs altogether
from what we have found, not only in the Mustelidæ, but in all the Land
Carnivores. Their grinding surfaces present no sharp cusps, or jagged
cutting edges, as in most Carnivorous forms; neither are they provided
with numerous small tubercles and ridges, as in the Bears; but the
surface of each is raised into a small number of rounded eminences,
reminding one of the “roches moutonnées” of a glacial district, or, as
Dr. Coues remarks, differing from the teeth of ordinary Carnivores, as
water-worn pebbles differ from fresh-chipped angular pieces of rock.

[Illustration: UNDER VIEW OF SKULL OF SEA OTTER. (_After
Coues._)]

The Sea Otter is found in the North Pacific, chiefly in the regions of
Kamstchatka and Alaska, and extends as far south as California.

Like the Seal, the Sea Otter is gregarious, being often found “in bands
numbering from fifty up to hundreds. When in rapid movement, they make
alternate undulating leaps out of the water, plunging again as do
Seals and Porpoises. When in a state of quietude, they are much of the
time on their backs. They are frequently seen in this posture, with
the hind flippers extended, as if catching the breeze to sail or drift
before it. They live on Clams, as well as Crabs and other species of
Crustacea; sometimes small fish. When the Otter descends and brings up
any article of food, it instantly resumes its habitual attitude on the
back to devour it. On sunny days, when looking, it sometimes shades its
eyes with one fore paw, much in the same manner as a person does with
the hand.”[194] This curious habit, as we have seen, is adopted also
by the Glutton. The supine position is so habitual that the females
actually sleep in the water on their backs, with the young ones clasped
between their fore paws. While in this position, too, the Otter will
toss a piece of sea-weed backwards and forwards from paw to paw, like a
ball, and the mother play with her offspring for hours together.

The fur is very valuable, and the animal is consequently hunted
regularly; so regularly, that there is every possibility of the species
becoming speedily extinct unless some check is put upon the chase. For
taking some action in the matter, there is the further reason that the
natives of the Aleutian Isles, the chief resort of the animal, are
dependent on its hunting for their subsistence, and it has been shown
that the people have diminished in numbers coincidently with the Otters.

“There are four principal methods of capturing the Sea Otter, namely,
by _surf-shooting_, by _spearing-surrounds_, by _clubbing_, and by
_nets_.”

[Illustration: FEMALE SEA OTTER SWIMMING ON HER BACK WITH YOUNG IN
HER ARMS. (_After Steller._)]

“The surf-shooting is the common method, but has only been in vogue
among the natives a short time. The young men have nearly all been
supplied with rifles, with which they patrol the shores of the island
and inlets, and whenever a Sea Otter’s head is seen in the surf, a
thousand yards out even, they fire, the great distance and the noise of
the surf preventing the Sea Otter from taking alarm until it is hit;
and in nine times out of ten, when it is hit in the head, which is all
that is exposed, the shot is fatal, and the hunter waits until the surf
brings his quarry in, if it is too rough for him to venture out in his
‘bidarkie.’ This shooting is kept up now the whole year round.

“The spearing-surround is the orthodox native system of capture, and
reflects the highest credit upon them as bold, hardy watermen. A party
of fifteen or twenty bidarkies with two men in each, as a rule, all
under the control of a chief elected by common consent, start out in
pleasant weather, or when it is not too rough, and spread themselves
over a long line, slowly paddling over the waters where the Sea Otters
are most usually found. When any one of them discovers an Otter asleep,
most likely, in the water, he makes a quiet signal, and there is not a
word spoken or a paddle splashed while they are on the hunt. He darts
towards the animal, but generally the alarm is taken by the sensitive
object, which instantly dives before the Aleut can get near enough to
throw his spear. The hunter, however, keeps right on, and stops his
canoe directly over the spot where the Otter disappeared. The others,
taking note of the position, all deploy and scatter in a circle of
half a mile wide round the point of departure thus made, and patiently
wait for the re-appearance of the Otter, which must take place within
fifteen or thirty minutes, for breath; and as soon as this happens the
nearest one to it darts forward in the same manner as his predecessor,
when all hands shout and throw their spears, to make the animal dive
again as quickly as possible, thus giving it scarcely an instant to
recover itself. A sentry is placed on its second diving-wake as before,
and the circle is drawn anew; and the surprise is often repeated,
sometimes for two or three hours, until the Sea Otter, from interrupted
respiration, becomes so filled with air or gases that he cannot sink,
and becomes at once an easy victim.

“The clubbing is only done in the winter season, and then at infrequent
intervals, which occur when tremendous gales of wind from the
northward, sweeping down over Saanach, have almost blown themselves
out. The natives, the very boldest of them, set out from Saanach, and
scud down on the tail of the gale to the far outlying rocks, just
sticking out above surf-wash, where they creep up from the leeward to
the Sea Otters found there at such times, with their heads stuck into
the beds of kelp to avoid the wind. The noise of the gale is greater
than that made by the stealthy movements of the hunters, who, armed
with a short, heavy, wooden club, dispatch the animals one after
another without disturbing the whole body, and in this way two Aleuts,
brothers, were known to have slain seventy-eight in less than an hour
and a half.”

[Illustration: SEA OTTER.]

The nets used by the Atka and Attore Aleuts “are from sixteen to
eighteen feet long, and six to ten feet wide, with coarse meshes made
nowadays of twine, but formerly of sinew. On the kelp-beds these nets
are spread out, and the natives withdraw and watch. The Otters come
to sleep or rest on these places, and get entangled in the meshes of
the nets, seeming to make little or no effort to escape, paralysed, as
it were, by fear, and fall in this way easily into the hands of the
trappers, who have caught as many as six at one time in one of these
small nets, and frequently get three.... No injury whatever is done to
these frail nets by the Sea Otters, strong animals as they are; only
stray Sea Lions destroy them.... The salt water and kelp seem to act as
a disinfectant to the net, so that the smell of it does not repel or
alarm the shy animal.”[195]

GENERAL RELATIONS OF THE LAND CARNIVORA, RECENT AND FOSSIL.

From very obvious reasons we have been compelled to describe the
various forms of Land Carnivora of which we have been able to take
account, one by one, beginning with Cats, and ending with the
Otters. But the reader will already have discovered that a linear
arrangement like this gives no true conception of the relations
existing between the various families of which the sub-order is
composed, or of the various genera which are included in the families.
For cross-relationships of the most puzzling and often complicated
description are perpetually turning up: among the Æluroids, for
instance, we found Cryptoprocta to be intermediate between Cats and
Civets, and yet, if we had followed the order indicated by this
relationship, we should have had to ignore the close connection between
Cats and Hyænas, and that between Hyænas and Civets, through the
intermediation of the Aard Wolf.

It is necessary, then, to devise some method of writing down the
names of the families, other than that of placing them one under the
other, if we are to get anything like a clear notion of their mutual
relationships. The method adopted by Professor Flower is perhaps the
most convenient, and following him, we arrange the groups thus:--

  FELIDÆ.              HYÆNIDÆ.                                  URSIDÆ.
   CRYPTOPROCTIDÆ.     PROTELIDÆ.  CANIDÆ.  PROCYONIDÆ.     AILURIDÆ.
            VIVERRIDÆ.                                 MUSTELIDÆ.

In this scheme we see an expression of the fact that the Dogs
(_Canidæ_) form a central group, from which the families of the
Æluroidea--those to the left--diverge in one direction, and the
families of the Arctoidea--those to the right--in the other direction.
The Civets (_Viverridæ_) and the Weasel family (_Mustelidæ_), being
the least modified of the Æluroid and Arctoid sections respectively,
are placed at the bottom of the table, the Cats (_Felidæ_) and Bears
(_Ursidæ_), being the most modified, are placed at the top. The two
latter families, again, are placed at opposite extremities of the
table, as far from one another as possible, to indicate the great gap
which separates the digitigrade, short-skulled, active, carnivorous
Cats, from the plantigrade, long-skulled, clumsy, herbivorous Bears.
To be quite accurate, such a scheme should take account not merely of
families, but of genera: in our table, for instance, there is nothing
to show the immense amount of specialisation undergone by one section
of the _Mustelidæ_--the Otters--to fit them for aquatic life; but such
a detailed arrangement is quite beyond the scope of the present work.

In considering the chief forms of Carnivora existing at the present
day, we have by no means exhausted this varied and interesting group,
for a number of its members, the forerunners of those now living, have
vanished from the face of the earth, and are known to us only by their
bones, which we find here and there entombed in the strata of which the
crust of our earth is composed.

In the newest, that is the most recently deposited, set of strata,
those which together form the beds of the Pleistocene period, we find
a very curious change in the flesh-eaters inhabiting England. Instead
of having nothing but Wild Cats, Wolves, and Bears--the only wild
beasts known to have existed in the historical period--we have the
enormous Cave Lion (_Felis spelæa_), besides the Cave Bear (_Ursus
spelæus_), and the Cave Hyæna (_Hyæna spelæa_), the last being merely
a variety of the Spotted Hyæna (_Hyæna crocuta_) of the present day.
The presence of the first and last of these would seem to indicate that
the climate of Britain was warmer in the Pleistocene period than it now
is; but the presence of the Glutton, as well as of some non-carnivorous
Arctic animals, tends to the other opinion, namely, that the climate
of England was sub-Arctic. Very probably the Cave Lion and Hyæna were
provided with thick woolly fur, and so, like the Mantchurian Tiger and
the Northern Leopard (see pp. 34 and 42), enabled to bear a degree of
cold experienced by but few of their relatives at the present day.

[Illustration: SKULL OF MACHÆRODUS. (_After Gaudry._)]

In beds of the same age in South America is found a true Cheetah,
a species now confined to the Old World. But the most wonderful
animal belonging to this period is the great Sabre-toothed Tiger
(_Machærodus_), a gigantic animal, with canines six or eight inches
long, and jagged at their edges like a very fine saw. It would almost
seem as if Dame Nature, in producing this terrible beast, had actually
got to the end of her tether in the matter of specialisation for
carnivorous habits; the canines of Machærodus were so long that he
must have had some difficulty in opening his mouth sufficiently wide
to take in anything large, and thus it would seem that he actually
overshot the limit of perfection, and died of over-specialisation.
The canines of the Sabre-toothed Tiger are, however, not its only
peculiarity: there is one less premolar on each side of the upper jaw
than in the modern members of the Cat family, so that the total number
of teeth is reduced to twenty-eight,[196] the smallest number found in
any of the Carnivora.

On descending to the rocks of Pliocene age, we find, amongst many
forms existing at the present day, an animal called _Galecynus_,
about the size of the Fox, and possessing many characters, in its
teeth, limbs, &c., intermediate between those of the Dogs and those of
the Civets. Another genus, _Hyænarctos_, is almost exactly half-way
between Dogs and Bears; its molars have less of a cutting character
than a Dog’s, and less of a grinding character than a Bear’s, and its
front premolars, though much smaller than a Dog’s, do not fall out
altogether, as in the Bear.

In the Pliocene, or Late Miocene strata, remains have been found of
many existing genera, such as Cats, Civets, Hyænas, Dogs, Weasels,
Ratels, and Otters; but amongst these are several genera not occurring
in any of the more recent strata, and all, or nearly all, tending
to bridge over the gaps which separate existing families from one
another. For instance, a perfect gradation between the Hyænas and
Civets is afforded by two genera, _Hyænictis_ and _Ictitherium_; while
_Lutrictis_ shows affinities both with Civets and Otters, _Hemicyon_
with Dogs and Gluttons, and _Dinictis_ with Cats and Weasels. Another
very interesting genus, _Promephitis_, belongs undoubtedly to the
Weasel family, but is intermediate between its three sub-families,
the Weasels proper, Badgers, and Otters. _Simocyon_, again, an animal
about the size of a Leopard, is described as having the canines of a
Cat, the molars of a Dog, and jaws shaped like those of a Bear. Lastly,
_Amphicyon_ is a large plantigrade animal, Bear-like for the most part,
but with trenchant molars, like a Dog’s, and having a small additional
or third molar on each side of the lower jaw, the number of its teeth
being thus brought up to that which may be called the typical Mammalian
number, namely, forty-four.[197]

[Illustration: SKULL OF ARCTOCYON. (_After Gaudry._)]

In the Eocene, or Lower Tertiary, still more remarkable forms occur,
along with several genera existing at the present day, such as the
Cryptoprocta, Civet, Dog, and Marten, all of which are found in the
upper or more recent strata of the Eocene formation. But lower down the
genus _Cynodon_ also connects Dogs with Civets; and in the very lowest
beds occurs a large plantigrade animal (_Arctocyon_), with a very small
brain-case, wide jugal arches, a complete set of forty-four teeth, and
altogether of a generalised character. In the Eocene of North America,
_Limnocyon_ and _Prototomus_ occur low down, and in the Middle Eocene
a form as large as a Lion has been discovered, to which the name
_Limnofelis_ has been given, and also _Orocyon_, and some allies of the
_Hyænodon_.

[Illustration: LOWER JAW OF HYÆNODON. (_After Gaudry._)]

But we have not yet learned all that Palæontology can teach us about
the history of the Carnivora. In the Eocene and Lower Miocene beds
are found animals referred to the genera _Hyænodon_, _Pterodon_,
_Palæonictis_, and _Proviverra_ which, not content with trespassing on
the boundaries between existing families, actually wander outside the
Carnivorous order altogether, and approach so nearly to the Marsupials
(Kangaroos, Opossums, &c.) that many competent anatomists have proposed
to place them in the latter group. The premolars and molars in these
extinct animals have sharp cusps, and increase gradually in size from
before backwards; so that, of the whole grinding series, the first
premolar is the smallest, and the last molar the largest. Now we have
seen that the rule among existing Carnivora is for the last molar to
be a small tooth, and for the largest of the set to be the fourth
premolar in the upper jaw, and the first molar in the lower jaw. On
the other hand, the regular increase in size is very characteristic of
the flesh-eating Marsupials, amongst which the Thylacine, or so-called
Tasmanian Wolf, shows a considerable resemblance, as to its teeth, to
_Hyænodon_ and _Pterodon_, while _Palæonictis_ and _Proviverra_ are
more nearly allied to the Opossums and to the Dasyure, or Tasmanian
Devil. The brain-case in these forms was very small, and a cast of the
interior of the skull of Proviverra, figured by M. Gaudry,[198] shows
that the brain must have had an extremely low character.

[Illustration: SKULL OF PROVIVERRA. (_After Gaudry._)

The roof of the skull is supposed to be cut away to show the form of
the brain, as deduced from a natural cast of the interior of the skull.]

We thus see that a considerable number of the existing genera
of Carnivora took their origin in the Eocene epoch, where they
co-existed with creatures curiously intermediate between the various
existing families, and with others intermediate between Carnivora and
Marsupials. In the rocks of the Secondary period (chalk, oolite, lias,
&c.), none of the Carnivora have as yet appeared, and only Marsupial
remains are found.

APPENDIX TO CHAPTER VI. (VIVERRIDÆ, CIVET FAMILY.)

THE CYNOGALE.[199]

[Illustration: CYNOGALE.]

Although in all essential respects a true Viverrine, the Cynogale, or
Mampalon, differs very considerably in external appearance from all
the members of the family we have hitherto considered. It has none of
a Civet’s lithe and slender appearance, but is stout and plump. Its
tail is very short, not more than six inches long, or a quarter the
length of the head and body, which together attain length of about two
feet. The snout is long and pointed, the muzzle bald, and the ears very
short; the whiskers are decidedly extensive in their development, for
besides the usual hairs on the snout, there are two large bundles of
long bristles on the cheeks, one a little in front of and below the
eye, the other in front of the ear. The limbs are short and stout,
and the digits are five in number, slightly webbed at the base, and
provided with short, retractile claws. The close thick fur is of a
yellowish-brown colour, lighter on the under side of the head, and over
the eyes, and darker on the legs. The mode of progression is nearly
plantigrade.

There is not much known of the habits of the Cynogale, except that it
frequents the neighbourhood of water, and is also a good climber. It is
found in the island of Borneo.

THE CYNICTIS.[200]

This animal, a near relative of the Ichneumons, is found in South
Africa, where it is represented by three species. The head and body
attain a length of about half a yard; the tail of about a foot. The
pelage is smooth, of a reddish colour, darker on the head and limbs;
the tail is bushy, of a greyish colour, and tipped with white. There
are five toes on the fore foot, three on the hind foot.

[Illustration: MANGUE.]

THE MANGUE.[201]

The Crossarchus, Mangue, or Kusimanse, presents a good deal of
resemblance to the Cynogale, but differs from it in having rough fur
and a comparatively long tail. It is also a much smaller animal, not
exceeding fourteen or fifteen inches in length from snout to root of
tail, which latter appendage is about eight inches in length. The
body is thick and stout; the fur brown, becoming lighter on the head;
the ears are short, and the snout is long and flexible, projecting
some distance beyond the mouth, somewhat like that of the Coati. The
secretion of the tail glands is very fetid.

The single species of Crossarchus is found in tropical Africa. Very
little is known of its habits in a wild state; in captivity it soon
becomes tame, and seems to prefer animal to vegetable food.

THE SURICATE.[202]

This is a South African species, and, as in the case of the last two
forms, little or nothing is known of its habits in a state of nature.
It is about the size of the Crossarchus, the body and head attaining
a length of about thirteen, the tail of about six inches. The body is
of a greyish-brown colour, marked along the back with yellowish-grey
transverse stripes. There is a black patch round the eye, bordered by
a lighter area, and the ears and the end of the tail are also black.
As in the Cynogale, the head is rounded, the snout long, and the ears
short. The legs are much longer than in either of the preceding genera,
and the feet are distinguished by being provided with only four instead
of five toes. The claws are very long and curved, and, as might be
judged from this, the animal is addicted to burrowing.

[Illustration: SURICATE.]

There are several of these pretty little animals in the Zoological
Gardens, where their innocent faces and quiet ways distinguish them
very favourably from their relatives, the Ichneumons, which are
perpetually quarrelling in the most outrageous fashion.

    WILLIAM KITCHEN PARKER.
    THOMAS JEFFERY PARKER.

THE AQUATIC OR MARINE CARNIVORA.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION--THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.

  Pinnipedia distinctly Aquatic--The Three Families--Their
  Common Characteristics--Skeleton--Mobility of
  Figure--Feet--Dentition--Skull--Tongue--Stomach--Intestine--Peculiar
  Disposition of Blood-vessels of Liver--Lungs--Sense
  of Smell--Larynx--Brain--Sense of Hearing--The Walrus
  Family--Characteristics--THE WALRUS, OR MORSE--Geographical
  Distribution--Fossil Forms--Weight--Size--Appearance in Old Age--Mode
  of Walk--Habits--On Guard--In the Water--Attacked--Tusks--Dentition
  of the Young--Uses of the Tusks--Food--Long Fasts--Story of “Jamie,”
  a Tame Walrus--The Young--Maternal Affection--Massacre--Walrus as an
  Article of Diet.

The Walrus, the Sea Lions, and the Seals, collectively termed the
Pinnipedia,[203] or by some Pinnigrada,[204] constitute the second
well-marked group or sub-order of the Carnivora. They are truly
inhabitants of the high seas, the land being to them only an occasional
resort, when procreation or other causes induce short visits, or
temporary residence thereupon. In the previous chapters it has been
noted that certain of the so-called Land Carnivora, the White Polar
Bear, or the Common Otter (_Lutra_), for example, take freely to the
water, and even subsist on finny and other prey derived therefrom,
but nevertheless, as a rule, such Carnivora only peradventure are
semi-aquatic. The one notable instance to the contrary is the Sea
Otter (_Enhydra_), an animal seldom seen on land, though rarely met
with far from rocky reefs and islets. Besides mere habit, the Polar
Bears and Otters in some points of their organisation--particularly the
conformation of the skull of the first, and webbed toes and abundant
under-fur in the two last--show a partial gradation and tendency of
structure towards their strictly marine brethren, the Seal tribe.

The group of the Pinnipedia is one in which considerable interest is
centred, and this for several reasons. Their history, as handed down
by classical lore, has a shade of the mythical, and well shows how
fable has become engrafted on fact. Within the last two centuries
their pursuit has been brimful of incident and adventure. As articles
of commerce, the oil and the furs of certain kinds of the Seal tribe
are of immense importance; whilst the mere hides of all, besides the
Walrus tusks, are commodities of great value. Indeed, to the natives
of the Arctic regions, Seals are indispensable as a means of every-day
existence. But to the naturalist the fact of their being Carnivores
peculiarly adapted to an aquatic life, and the study of their habits
generally, are subjects of intense interest.

Moreover, the gradual, in some instances sudden, diminution of Seal
life at the hand of man, points to a possible early period of their
extinction, as in the case of the Whales and Manatee tribes, and warns,
like the Roman story of the Sybilline books, that if we would read the
history of the past, the knowledge must be culled ere the records are
swept beyond recall.

The three families of the Pinnipedia are denominated in technical
language the Trichechidæ,[205] the Otariidæ,[206] and the Phocidæ.[207]
The first has but one living representative, the Walrus, or Morse;
the second contains the so-called Sea Lions and Sea Bears, more
distinctively known as Eared Seals; in the third family are ranged the
ordinary Seals, contra-distinguished as Earless Seals. Sufficiently
different among themselves in general aspects and habits, as to
be recognised at a glance, the three families, nevertheless, have
characteristic features common to all, wherefrom the sub-order has
received its name. Their toes are united nearly throughout by a
web of membrane, as in a duck’s foot, which converts the paws into
broad, fin-like organs (the flippers), well adapted for swimming
purposes. This feather-footed, pinnipedal condition is associated with
a shortening of the upper segments of the limbs, and such peculiar
attachment especially of the hind-legs as to leave little more than the
feet free. The body is long, usually ample and fleshy at the neck and
shoulders, but narrows taperingly behind towards the rump. The head
is either flattish and elongated or more or less rounded, but in all
cases relatively small to the bulk of the animal. External ears are
absent save in the Otary family, which possess a diminutive, conical,
or pear-shaped ear-conch. The eyes are full, and often expressive,
though usually on land bearing a drowsy look, from their vision being
adapted for a watery medium. Unless as the merest rudiment, there are
no eyelashes or eyebrows. The muzzle is dog-like, but with long, stiff,
though exceedingly mobile moustaches. In the Walrus, however, chiefly
on account of its huge tusks, this part of the face is immensely
dilated, fleshy, and covered with great pliable bristles, like
knitting-needles in calibre; these latter and tusks being adaptations
suited to the animal’s mode of feeding. The skin of the body fits
loosely, and there is a thick layer of oily fat beneath, its amount
depending on general condition, season, and sex. The hairy covering
is of two sorts, a stouter, coarser, and at the roots a much shorter,
softer kind. As it appears ordinarily, the hair seems uniform and
short, and when wetted it clings close to the skin, so that the surface
then is smooth and polished, becoming rougher as it dries. Now, it is
the soft under-wool, which is in great abundance in some of the Sea
Lions only, that constitutes the fur of commerce.

[Illustration: SKELETON OF OTARIA IN THE ATTITUDE OF WALKING.
(_Reduced after Murie._)]

In the skeleton it is to the amount of cartilage between the bones,
along with the gristly rods attaching the ribs to the back and
breast-bones, that the extraordinary mobility of figure on land, and
easy motions of swimming in the water, which belong _par excellence_
to the Marine Carnivora, are due. Add to this that the hip-bones are
narrow and remarkably compressed, the thigh-bones excessively short,
the shank-bones long and tied in behind, while great hind-flippers,
like double oars rearwards, drive or steer with sculling sweep. The
bones of the fore-limb and its modified foot altogether are strong,
and remarkably so in the powerful-swimming Sea Lions. All four feet
have excessively long toes, the thumb-bones being longest, the fingers
lessening to the little toes; in the hind-foot the three middle toes
are shorter than the two outer ones. There are tiny nails on each toe
at the bone ends, beyond which is a flat spatula-shaped cartilage, of
excessive length in the Otary family. The webbed flat feet are thus
altogether very peculiar, and when used the entire sole, even including
wrist and ankle-bones, is laid flat on the ground, so that two families
of the Pinnipedia are really more plantigrade than the Bears. The
Common Seals, or Phocidæ, however, never use the hind-feet on land, and
the fore-feet but sparingly, while their nails are more claw-like than
in their marine congeners. In none of the Seal tribe, though, are the
nails or claws retractile, as previously has been shown (p. 12) in the
Cat and Lion.

The skull in the three families presents modifications partly adapted
to their different habits and modes of life, and partly to their race
characters. In none, however, do we find the peculiar scissor-like or
cutting teeth (see p. 13) of the typical Land Carnivora, but, as in the
Bear tribe, the dentition exhibits a diminution in the cutting form
of the teeth, and a tendency in some of the creatures to a levelling
and conical production of the crown of the molars, while in others
these latter show a serrate or saw-like character. For example, in the
Walrus all the teeth, save the canines, are short and simple-fanged,
the canines themselves, or, as they are more commonly termed in
this animal, tusks, being of inordinate length and strength. In the
Otariidæ, the canines, though themselves of good size, are small in
comparison with those of the Morse tribe, while the incisors and
single-rooted molars are more conical and prominent. The dentition of
the Phocidæ varies considerably, in some the occasionally double-rooted
molars acquiring a tuberculate, in others a saw-like or serrate
character, while the incisors are notch-crowned. The bony cavity for
the eye is open behind; the facial region is less prominently produced
than in some of the feline Carnivora. The region of the brain-pan is
relatively full, while the skull, as a whole, is elongated and flat. In
youth, the cranium of the Pinnipedia has a predominating brain area,
and the entire bony surface is smooth and featureless. As age advances,
however, in certain of the genera at least, the relation of parts
changes, and the face acquires prominence, while great bony crests
arise on the summit and back of the head. The tongue does not possess
the spines met with in the Cat tribe, though the surface is roughish.
In the Seals, but not in the Walrus, the tip is slightly cleft. The
stomach is single-chambered. The intestine is considerably longer than
in the Felidæ, averaging fifteen times the length of the body, or
thereabouts. The glands of the internal coat in some of the tribe are
very extensive, and co-ordinate with the excessively rapid digestion.

[Illustration: UPPER SURFACE OF BRAIN OF OTARIA.

(_After Murie._)]

A curious point in connection with the veins entering the liver is
their enormous dilatation. This, by some writers, has been regarded
as the means whereby the animal is enabled to remain submerged, the
blood being held in these reservoirs instead of passing on towards the
heart and lungs to be aërated. But whether this peculiar disposition
of the blood-vessels is necessarily connected with diving powers, up
to the present time has not been satisfactorily decided. Whatsoever
the relation between structure and habit in this respect, it has
been observed that the staying-power of the Seal tribe under water
increases from youth to age. In the Pinnipedia, the lungs, relatively,
are capacious, the animal rising to breathe air at intervals from ten
minutes to half an hour or more, when at the surface taking a long and
deep inspiration. The nostrils are under the influence of strong fleshy
bundles, which firmly compress the orifices when below water. Their
sense of smell is well developed, and the larynx simple. The brain in
all is not only large, but far surpasses in volume and in amount of
convolutions that of the Land Carnivora as a whole. Their docility and
intelligence, especially when young, are often remarkable. The voice
is plaintive or bellowing, but wanting the great compass and strength
of the Felidæ. The nerves supplying the organs of smell, sight, and
hearing are large, and the last is most unusually acute. Indeed, it is
possibly to hearing more than to the other senses that the Seal tribe
are dependent for their safety and living. The facts of sound readily
travelling under water, of solid ice being also a good conductor, and
of the quietness of the frozen regions, all tend to render this faculty
of the highest service, nay, a necessity, to the creatures possessing
it. Particularly is the faculty of hearing essential when the Pinniped
goes on land, for in the rarer medium of the air its vision is
defective, the construction of the lens, &c., being that best fitted
for sight under water.

    TONGUE AND BACK PARTS OF MOUTH OF OTARIA. (_Reduced after
    Murie._) _to_, Right Tonsil; _u_, Uvula, or Curtain; _T_, Tongue.]

I.--THE WALRUS FAMILY (TRICHECHIDÆ).

This family in some points resembles the Eared Seals, or Otaries, and
in others approaches the Earless Seals, or Phocidæ. The characters of
the family are mainly, if not wholly, derived from the Walrus, the only
living representative. There are no external ears, but a fair-sized
opening indicates the passage. Both sexes, when adult, possess two
immense tusks in the upper jaw, quite a notable feature. Along with
this, there is full development of the bony parts to accommodate them,
and the huge, though abruptly truncated muzzle, is garnished with
long and remarkably strong bristly moustaches. The semilunar-shaped
nostrils, situated above these, are dilated or powerfully compressed at
will, by the thick, fleshy muscles of the upper lip. The eye is smaller
than in the Otariidæ and Phocidæ. The body, especially its hinder
part, is also heavier. The tail seems absent, though, in reality,
nearly reaching to the heels, but a broad flap of skin stretches
across from leg to leg, and binding these, hides the tail. The hind
limbs appear shorter than in the two neighbouring families, but the
above tail-membrane is wider, and allows greater freedom to the legs
and feet. The three middle toes are shortest, as is the case with the
Common Seals, but not the Otaries. The fore-legs are of intermediate
length, strong, stumpy, and although the thumb is biggest, there is a
certain equality in the length of the toes. The fore feet, as well as
the hind feet, are sufficiently free to be laid flat on the ground.
The nails are diminutive, and not claw-like, and the soles of the feet
are unusually rough and warty. The tongue is smooth, and not cleft
at the tip. The dental series is as follows:--Incisors, (1-1)/(0-0);
canines, (1-1)/(1-1); premolars, (3-3)/(3-3); molars, (2-2)/(1-1) = 24.
The tusks, or upper canines, lie outside and almost in front of the
dental arch. The incisor and grinding teeth are uncommonly alike, being
short, cylindrical, and obliquely truncated at their crowns. The teeth
alone are very distinctive of this family, and modified for uses and
a diet _sui generis_. There is no such development of a thick coating
of under-fur, as in certain of the Otary family, the root hairs being
sparse, and the larger sort softer, shaggier, and not so close pressed
as in the Seals.

[Illustration: HEAD OF WALRUS. (_Modified after Murie._)]

[Illustration: SKULL AND DENTITION OF WALRUS. (_After De
Blainville and Murie._)

A, Skull of Old Animal; B, Palate and Dentition of
Young; C, Lower Jaw and Dentition of Young.]

THE WALRUS, OR MORSE.[208]--So far as looks are concerned,
scarcely a more uninviting fellow can be conceived than this animal,
which the Greenlanders and Eskimo call “Awŭk,” from its peculiar
guttural cry. It is better known among our own countrymen as the Sea
Horse, though naturalists more frequently prefer Walrus, or Morse,
words respectively modified derivatives from the old Norse and Lapp
languages. Its present range is a narrow belt girding Labrador,
Hudson’s and Baffin’s Bays, and skirting the East Greenland coast
towards Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, and still farther stretching
on to Behring’s Strait and the islands off Alaska. Certain writers
are inclined to regard the animal found in the North Pacific as a
different species from that inhabiting the North Atlantic seas; but on
this head no very justifiable evidence is yet offered. Meantime, its
geographical distribution, briefly defined, is the Arctic Circle. Here,
thinned by its hereditary enemy, the Polar Bear on the land side, and
stricken down wholesale by man seawards, the day of its extermination
seems not far distant. The living Walrus, indeed, presents to us a
solitary example of a family once more numerous and widespread, and
doubtless coincident with a period when climate was different from
that now existing where their fossil remains have been discovered. In
the deposits of Virginia, on the American Continent, in the Suffolk
crag, and possibly in contemporaneous beds around the neighbourhood of
Antwerp, bones of Walruses allied to the present northern form have
been dug up. But others, moreover, have been found which, from greater
size and characteristic peculiarities, evidently belonged to at least
two genera (_Trichechodon_ and _Alachtherium_) distinct from the Arctic
animal. Thus, by degrees, the more massive representatives of the
family Trichechidæ have died out, while the last of the descendants
visibly diminish amongst the bergs of their secluded, ice-bound home.

The Walrus of the present day is a creature which attains large
dimensions. Elliott mentions a great fellow, shot in the Behring Sea,
nearly 13 feet long, and with a girth of 14 feet; and he estimates
the gross weight of an ordinary full-grown male at 2,000 lbs. Well
have some likened the hide, which is of a tawny brown colour, to a
tough, flexible coat of mail, which harpoon and even bullets penetrate
with difficulty. In old age these creatures do not only become obese,
shapeless masses, but their gnarled hide, scarred by tusk-marks,
bullet, or harpoon wounds, gets blotchy, pustular, and hairless. This,
with small, fierce, bloodshot eye, in marked contrast with that of
the Seals, and formidable pair of tusks, gives it a ferocious and
demoniacal look.

The unusually flattened head seems disproportionately small to the
great neck and sack-like body, the tusks and moustaches being all in
all either in profile or front view. Their movement on land is very
awkward and droll. With high-set shoulders and low hind-quarters, and
squat limbs to their heavy body, the fore feet are successively thrust
flat forwards from the wrist, each followed by a hitch and swing of the
hind foot, as from a pivot on the heel, ending in a sudden sort of jerk
or check. Thus they straddle in a clumsy, indolent way along the rough
ice, in emergency exerting themselves into a kind of hobbling canter.

This ungainly creature, though so repellent in features, is in reality
quiet and inoffensive, unless attacked or roused in love-time, when
woe betide those who measure his strength, especially if he reach his
native watery element. They are very gregarious, seldom being met with
singly, but often in herds from a dozen to several hundreds, as Captain
Cook long ago observed. They crowd up from the water on to the rocks
or ice one after the other, grunting and bellowing. The first arrived
is no sooner composed in sleeping trim, than a second comes prodding
and poking with its blunt tusks, forcing room for itself, while the
first is urged farther from the water; the second in turn is similarly
treated by the third; and so on, until numbers will lie packed close,
heads and tails resting against and on each other, in the most
convenient and friendly manner possible. There they sleep and snore to
their hearts’ content, but nevertheless, according to Elliott, keep
guard in a singular fashion. Some one would seem to disturb another;
then this fellow would raise his head listlessly, give a grunt and a
poke to his nearest companion, who would rouse up a few minutes, also
grunt, and pass the watchword to his neighbour, and so on through the
herd, this disturbance always keeping some few on the alert. Danger
announced, they scuttle pell-mell and topsy-turvy into the water.

Once in the sea, their sluggish deportment vanishes, and activity is
the order of the day. Curiosity aroused, or attack threatened, as
Lamont remarks, the herd keep near each other. One moment a crowd
of grisly heads and long, gleaming white tusks are above the waves;
then follow snorting and hasty breathing; immediately thereafter, a
host of brown hemispherical backs, followed by pairs of flourishing
hind-flippers, and the lot have dived, again to appear at an interval,
and the same performance be gone through. If one gets injured, or a
young one is in danger, the host of Walruses close round the boat,
grunting, rearing, and snorting, and if their wrath be roused, they
rush simultaneously to the fight, and attack the boat. When a young Sea
Horse is wounded, the parent becomes desperate, and fearlessly exposes
herself, or seizes the youngster under her fore-flipper, and makes off,
or defends herself and progeny to the death. There is no security to
the hunter on the ice, which the animal in its fury will break through,
even when six inches thick.

The tusks vary from eight inches to two feet long, and may weigh from
five to fifteen pounds; in the males they are generally supposed to be
thicker and more divergent. These teeth continuously grow, and, as they
wear away, their interior becomes filled with tooth bone. In the young
Walrus, there appears to be more teeth than in the adult; but these,
as Professor Flower has shown, are exceedingly diminutive denticles,
and may or may not remain through life. The first tooth of the molar
series in the upper jaw, as in the Dog and other Carnivora, has no
predecessor; but the second and third are preceded by milk teeth. In
the lower jaw there are three milk teeth.

The formidable canines, when employed as offensive weapons (Lamont
notes), not only are used downwards, but by a quick turn of the neck
the animal strikes upwards and sideways with equal dexterity. Again, in
raising the body out of the water on to the ice-floe after the first
jerk forwards, the tusks are dug into the ice with terrific force, and
thus the body is hauled on till footing is gained. Broken tusks are by
no means rare. But the most important function performed by the tusks
is as instruments for procuring food. A part of its time is spent by
the Morse on banks and among shoal water, where lie buried in the mud
shell-fish in abundance. Certain kinds of Mussels and Cockles are here
dug up by the tusks and gulped, often shells and all; but occasionally
it swallows Shrimps, Starfish, and marine worms. Dr. Robert Brown
states that whenever killed near a Whale’s carcass, the stomach of the
Walrus was invariably found crammed with the Whale-flesh. Some say
they eat sea-weeds; but the young animal possessed by the Zoological
Society, though tried by Mr. Bartlett, refused these, but greedily
took Mussels, Whelks, Clams, and the stomachs and intestines and other
soft part of fishes cut small. This said young one could not swallow
anything larger than a walnut, and from the way in which it used its
mouth bristles, in brushing backwards and forwards the food and sucking
everything through them, their use as a sieve was very manifest.

Whatsoever their diet they thrive on it, and store up much fat, though
less proportionally than Seals. Like some of the Sea Lions, they
have the curious habit of swallowing stones, the economy of which is
imperfectly understood. But there can be no doubt of the fact, or of
another equally strange, that of their protracted fasts. During the
autumn months the Sea Horses will muster in force on land, and quite
lethargic there doze for days or weeks without tasting food, thus
recalling the hibernation of the Bear tribe. The Walrus is infested
with skin-parasites and intestinal-worms, and the pebble-swallowing
habit is supposed to relieve the irritation of the latter.

Not unfrequently a troop will be found sleeping bolt upright in the
water, and so soundly that a boat can approach close to them before
they awake. They can remain under water, some say an hour, before
requiring to take breath, but the length of time doubtless depends on
circumstances; and ordinarily, or when suddenly disturbed, barely a
third of that time.

The brain is largely developed, and has many sinuosities, so that in
comparison with the Dog or Cat tribes the Walrus ought to possess
considerable intelligence. Acts displaying this quality, however, are
only sparingly manifested in the young where domestication has been
attempted.

A surgeon who accompanied one of the Dundee sealers relates how a
juvenile Walrus, being captured, became in a few days quite at home,
and a general favourite among the crew. It quickly formed a friendship
with an Eskimo Dog which was on board. They ate out of the same dish,
although “Jamie,” the Walrus, took good care always to secure the
larger share. Whenever the Dog retired to his barrel to sleep, “Jamie”
bundled his own fat carcass right on the top of him, and as doggie
rebelled against such an unwieldly bedfellow it usually ended in
“Jamie” having it all to himself. The latter ate blubber, beef, pork,
and almost everything given him, but his favourite dish was pea-soup.
Into this he would plunge his face, which procedure left him a most
comical countenance. He seemed to know his name well, for even if fast
asleep the instant any one cried out “Jamie!” he would rouse up, gaze
anxiously about, grunt, grunting in reply. But the most remarkable
trait in his character was an intense hatred of solitude. When alone
on deck he appeared a picture of misery, grunting and endeavouring
to make his way down “’tween deck” after the men; and on more than
one occasion precipitated himself, to his peril, plump down the main
hatchway, a height of about nine feet. If the cabin-door were open he
at once waddled in, laid himself before the stove, and went to sleep;
but if the cabin were empty he would not remain a moment. Nothing
made him so angry as to shake a piece of paper in his face, or to run
suddenly away after caressing him; he then followed with open mouth
in a great passion. When a Whale had been killed, and the ship’s crew
busy on deck, “Jamie” was in his glory in the very midst of the men
covered with grease and oil. At these times he was a perfect nuisance,
hindering the men in their duties by continually poking his head first
between one seaman’s legs and then another’s, and so on, meantime
running a chance of being cut down in the “flensing” operations. He
evinced no particular attachment to any one individual on board, liking
all equally from cabin-boy to captain. But he knew full well when he
did anything wrong; for if a rope’s-end were shown him in a threatening
manner, “Jamie” instantly would slink off, furtively casting a look
over his shoulder to see if he were followed. After being on board
four months he fell ill and died. The expression of this creature’s
countenance during his sickness was indicative of a great desire for
sympathy from any one who came near. He took his medicine to the last,
and when his remains were committed to the deep, regret was felt by all
on board.

[Illustration: WALRUSES ON THE ICE.]

The Walrus, unlike the Sea Lions, is believed to be monogamous.
It is known, however, that in the islands of Behring’s Strait the
female gives birth at nine months to a single young one, usually on
the ice-floes. The Seals show a remarkable change in the colour of
their coat at different periods of their life; but the young Walrus
resembles its parents, though it has no tusks, these not protruding to
any great extent for two years after its birth. The young evidently
suckle their mother up to the period just mentioned, and this seems
necessary, because in the absence of tusks the former are unable to
procure the shell-fish and other nourishment by digging. It is quite
possible that the attachment and maternal instinct of the helplessness
of her great full-grown baby to forage and protect itself in part lead
to that abandonment of self conspicuously shown in the heartrending
stories of hunters. Whether the Morse has the marked migratory habits
which we shall afterwards show obtain among the Seals is uncertain.
Circumstances rather tend to prove it to be more permanent in its
resorts, though occasionally some individuals must straggle from the
herd, since at intervals its occurrence on the British coast has
been recorded. Undoubtedly its area is decreasing, and the remaining
few seek unfrequented spots in high latitudes less accessible to the
sealers. In former days their abundance is historically handed down
to us in the fact--as Dr. Rink, Dr. Robert Brown, and others tell
us--that the Greenlanders “paid their tribute to the Crusades in the
shape of Walrus-tusks, delivered in Bergen in 1327, and their weight
is noted in a receipt which is still in existence.” But a century ago
their numbers were enormous, on the shores of the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
sixteen hundred being slaughtered at an onset. Among the first voyagers
to Spitzbergen it was no uncommon thing to slay hundreds in a few
hours. Lamont tells a story of four boats’ crews, in 1852, massacring
nine hundred Walruses in a herd of some thousands which they discovered
in one of the small islands to the south of Spitzbergen. So greedy
were the hunters that half of their spoil had to be left behind, and
the rotting carcases afterwards raised such a stench that the animals
deserted this previously favourite haunt, a sad lesson of man’s
inhumanity and savage lust of gain.

The more general opinion is that the flesh of the Walrus is tolerably
palatable, and certainly the Eskimo consider the hide a dainty
for dessert. The tongue, at least, is excellent, and a favourite
dish amongst the whale-fishers and the crews of the various Arctic
expeditions. Lamont, dining on stewed Walrus veal, mentions its being
slightly insipid, but good eating notwithstanding; the old animal’s
flesh, however, is by no means so universally admired, although Arctic
crews, at a pinch, much prefer it to salt junk.

At one time a considerable trade was devoted to Walrus-hunting, but the
diminishment of their numbers has practically reduced it to the lowest
ebb. The tusks alone have now any commercial significance, but formerly
Walrus hides were used for various purposes, such as machine-bands,
carriage-springs, rigging of ships, and the like.

CHAPTER II.

II.--THE SEA LION FAMILY (OTARIIDÆ).

  Various Names--Peculiarities of Distribution--Characteristics
  of the Family--Dentition--Skull--Fossil Remains--Distinction
  between Fur and Hair Seals--Preparation of the Seal-skin--THE
  NORTHERN FUR SEAL--History--The Pribyloff Islands--Male, Female,
  Young--“Hauling-grounds”--Wintering--Males at the Islands in
  Spring--Desperate Battles for Seaward Positions--Approach
  of the Females--Struggles for Wives--The Young--Abstinence
  from Food, Water, and Sleep for more than Two Months--Neutral
  Ground in the “Rookeries”--Habits of the Young--Food--Annual
  Slaughter--Estimated Numbers--Mode of Killing--STELLER’S SEA
  LION--GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL--HOOKER’S SEA BEAR--The Wreck
  of the _Grafton_--Musgrave’s Narrative--Sufferings of the
  Castaways--Their Experiences among the Sea Bears--THE WHITE-NECKED
  OTARY--Distribution--Description--“Counsellor Seal”--THE PATAGONIAN
  SEA LION--Historical Associations--Impetus to the Study of the
  Family--François Lecomte--Its Docility and Intelligence--Its
  various Performances--Voracity--Lecomte’s Observations--Habits--THE
  FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL--Habitat--The Hunters’ Boats--Driven from
  their Haunts--Captain Weddell’s Observations--Great Wariness and
  Speed--Size--Habits--THE SOUTH AFRICAN, OR CAPE FUR SEAL--THE NEW
  ZEALAND FUR SEAL--THE ASH-COLOURED OTARY--Peron’s Services to Science.

The old voyagers have termed, and the present race of sealers know,
members of the Otary family by such names as Sea Lion, Sea Leopard, Sea
Bear, Sea Wolf, Sea Dog, &c., and these terms have even passed from
seamen to science. The Otariidæ, like the Common Seals, are found both
in the northern and southern hemispheres, but it is a remarkable fact
that the species (some would even say genera) inhabiting the northern
and southern regions are perfectly distinct the one from the other. Nay
more, the one seems representative of the other. For example, there
are a certain number of Fur-bearing Seals, and a certain number of
Hair Seals, distributed over a wide area of the Arctic and Antarctic
Circles, which, in either case, are spread hither and thither into more
temperate latitudes. Indeed, the most recent observations tend to show
that these animals are migratory in habit, and frequent certain given
localities at regular intervals.

[Illustration: SEA LION.

(_From the Living Specimen in the Zoological Gardens, London._)]

Much confusion for a long time reigned concerning the species of the
Sea Lions. This difficulty has arisen from several reasons. Sealers
have long distinguished the two kinds, namely, Fur Seals and Hair
Seals; but among the thousands and thousands of skins annually brought
home, little attention was paid to the animal from which the different
skins were obtained, other than to its mere market value. While skins,
and occasionally skulls or skeletons, found their way into our museums,
seldom have these specimens been certified as belonging to one and
the same individual; and in other cases they have been so mixed that
identification has been little short of a riddle. Failing precision
with regard to skins and skulls, the anatomists have been too prone to
found genera and species on imperfect data, ignoring differences of
sex, age, and the like, and thus many technical divisions have been
introduced which we hardly think it worth while here rigidly to follow.

[Illustration: EAR OF OTARIA. (_Natural size._)

_After Murie._]

The family Otariidæ, or Eared Seals, was distinguished, and so named
by the French naturalist M. Péron early in this century, from the
animals of this section possessing a small scroll-like external ear,
an appendage wanting in the Seals generally. They moreover differ
from the latter, and resemble the Walrus, inasmuch as they can freely
progress on all-fours on land. Their skull is somewhat Bear-like, the
neck being long. The fore-limbs, set well back, are tolerably free,
and rest on a thin, broad, but flat hand of great size, encased in a
leathery-like substance. The thumb is remarkably stout, and far exceeds
the other fingers in length, and on all the merest indications of nails
are present. Each finger is tipped with a long spatular cartilage, as
are the toes of the hind feet, thus giving them great flexibility. The
hind limbs are not so loosely attached by the tail membrane as in the
Walrus, and the short tail is apparent close to the heels. The great
toe is by far the longest and strongest, size diminishing from this
to the little toe. As a rule, this family are nimbler on land than is
the Walrus family, though both walk flat-footed in a somewhat similar
fashion. The gait of the Otaries, however, from the slightly greater
restraint of their closer-linked hind quarters and legs, and from the
lengthening of their fore-flippers, is ridiculously peculiar. The
fore-flippers, as Mr. Frank Buckland drolly observes, remind one of Bob
Ridley’s shoes in a nigger performance. From the wrist they flop, flop,
in a semicircle as right and left foot is alternately raised, while the
hind quarters hitch, hitch, as each hind foot comes wobble, wobble,
under the belly, the great toes even overlapping the fore-flipper.
The Sea Lions have long, stout, exceedingly mobile whiskers, though
these are by no means so profuse, thick-set, or strong as in the
Walrus. Their skeletons differ from the latter in several particulars
of minor importance, the chief distinctions being in the skull and
dentition. There are on each side three incisors in the upper jaw, and
two in the lower. The middle ones are smallest, the upper outer ones
more often very large. The canines are still larger, and recurved;
but though powerful, not to be compared with the great tusks of the
Morse. There are more commonly five teeth of the molar series, of which
the crowns are bluntly conical, and the roots simple. The milk-teeth
are mostly shed before birth. The dental formula of the Otariidæ may
be represented thus:--Incisors, (3-3)/(2-2); canines, (1-1)/(1-1);
premolars, (4-4)/(4-4); molars, (2-2)/(1-1) = 36. The fore part of the
skull is not so swollen out and abrupt as in the Walrus, the smaller
size of the canines not requiring such space. In youth the skull is
long, low, and flat, but in the old males there arise bony crests and
processes, altering the shape, especially behind, so that recognition
of the species is even difficult.

[Illustration: TEETH OF OTARIA. (_After De Blainville._)]

As the habits of the family of the Eared Seals are in the main very
similar, and seeing how difficult it is from mere outward inspection to
tell one species from the other, it seems advisable to follow Mr. J.
W. Clark’s mode of treatment, and consider all under the single genus
_Otaria_, though incidentally allusion will be made to such forms as
are indicative of generic distinction.

We have in passing mentioned two kinds, namely, Fur and Hair Seals,
and we have also stated that these Eared Seals are not confined to one
hemisphere, but equally inhabit northern and southern regions. Taking
these facts into account we submit the following table as a kind of
provisional arrangement for the reader, that he may carry away a notion
of what may be termed a combination of commercial and geographical
divisions.

      _Northern._                                _Southern._
                        }              { THE FALKLAND ISLAND FUR SEAL.
                        }              { THE SOUTH AFRICAN, OR CAPE
  THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL.} FUR SEALS.   {   FUR SEAL.
                        }              { THE NEW ZEALAND FUR SEAL.
                        }              { THE ASH-COLOURED OTARY.

  STELLER’S SEA LION.    }              { HOOKER’S SEA BEAR.
  GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL.} HAIR SEALS.  { WHITE-NECKED OTARY.
                                        { THE PATAGONIAN SEA LION.

Thus eliminating doubtful forms, or such as naturalists are not
unanimous upon, there are, so to say, some ten well-marked species
of Otaries, whereof five belong to the so-called Fur, and five to
the so-called Hair Seals. In the northern region there are but three
peculiar to the West American coasts, &c., whereas seven inhabit the
southern region. These latter range over a wide area, from warmer
latitudes to the frigid zone. But it is very remarkable that in the
whole of the Northern Atlantic none of the Sea Lions are now to be
found. It is, however, noteworthy that in the neighbourhood of Antwerp,
Professor P. J. Van Beneden has described some few fragmentary remains
of a Seal allied to _Otaria_, which he has named _Mesotaria ambigua_.
These fossil bones, along with numerous other remains of Pinnipedia and
Cetacea, have been dug out of the upper Tertiary strata of Flanders.

As regards the precise geographical distribution, this will be referred
to in connection with the species themselves. The absolute distinction
between Hair and Fur Seals is one rather of degree than of kind, for as
we have before hinted, all the family possess, at least in their early
condition, evidence of under-fur, sparse or otherwise. But undoubtedly
as age advances in some kinds it is very abundant, in others quite
the reverse. Hence this character, though so apparent in some cases,
is not one thoroughly to be relied on so far as zoological divisions
are concerned, though very considerable stress has been laid upon
it by some writers. So far as the skin is looked on as a mercantile
commodity it unquestionably is a most useful mode of division, but a
classification founded thereon must be taken with the accustomed “grain
of salt.”

    Diagram of a Vertical Section of the Skin of the Fur Seal, showing
    how (_h_) the coarser Hairs penetrate quite through (_s_) the Skin,
    while (_f_) the Fur has Roots comparatively superficial. (_After
    Murie._)]

If we look at a lady’s Seal-skin jacket, we at once observe its rich
brown colour, and the velvety softness and denseness of the fine hairs
composing it. If this be compared with the coarse, hard, or salted dry
Seal-skin as imported, or, still better, with the coat of the living
Fur Seals, one is struck with the vast difference between them, and
wonders how the coarse or oily-looking, close-pressed hair of the
live animal can ever be transformed into the rich and costly garment
above spoken of. Passing our finger among the hairs of the Cat or Dog,
we may notice short fine hairs at the roots of the longer, coarser,
general covering of the animal. This is the so-called under-fur. It
equally obtains in most of the land as in the aquatic Carnivora. But
in the greater number of these animals the short hairs are so few and
often fine as to be comparatively speaking lost sight of among what to
our eyes constitutes the coat. The remarkable feature, then, in the
Fur Seals is its abundance and density. The operation which the skin
undergoes to bring out, so to say, the fur may be briefly described
as follows:--The skin, after being washed rid of grease, &c., is laid
flat on the stretch, flesh side up. A flat knife is then passed across
the flesh substance, thinning it to a very considerable extent. In
doing this the blade severs the roots of the long strong hairs which
penetrate the skin deeper than does the soft delicate under-fur. The
rough hairs are then got rid of, while the fur retains its hold. A
variety of subsidiary manipulations, in which the _pelt_ is softened
and preserved. are next gone through. These we need not enter into,
but only further state that the fur undergoes a process of dyeing which
produces that deep uniform tint so well known and admired. We may,
however, mention that it is the dyeing process which causes the fur to
lose its natural curly character and to present its limp appearance.

THE NORTHERN FUR SEAL.[209]--The habits and life history of
this animal are probably more accurately known than those of any other
of the Eared Seals. Fully a hundred and twenty years ago Steller, a
naturalist in the employ of the Russian Government, spent a season in
Kamstchatka and the islands in the neighbourhood of Behring Strait.
During his sojourn he carefully studied the habits and anatomy of an
animal termed by him Sea Bear, which existed in innumerable quantities
in the region in question, publishing the results of his observations
in the “Transactions” of the St. Petersburg Academy. A missionary,
Krasheninikoff by name, some years later, under the title of Sea Cat,
also gave an account of the same animal, but possibly deriving his
information from the preceding writer. For a long period little was
added to their narratives. In 1868 the Russian Government ceded to
the United States the territory of Alaska, including several of the
Aleutian Islands, and among others the Pribyloff group. These latter
are remarkable and important, inasmuch as they are the resort of
literally myriads of Seals, some of which are exceedingly valuable for
their fur. A Captain Pribyloff had discovered the small island which
bears his name in 1786, and thereafter a Russian company established
themselves, carrying on an extensive trade in skins and oils up to
the date of cession. The Russian Bishop Veniaminov, in 1840, gave an
account of the Seals of the Pribyloff group, containing a statistical
table of their probable numbers and evident decrease unless measures
were taken to prevent their wholesale extermination.

The American Government wisely appointed agents, the result being
reports by Captain C. Bryant and Mr. H. W. Elliott, which contained
wonderfully graphic histories and descriptions of this Fur Seal and
others of the group. To these gentlemen’s reports we are chiefly
indebted, and do not hesitate to abstract without stint.

The “Kautickie” is the name given by the Russians to this Fur Seal. It
repairs to the Pribyloff Islands to breed in almost fabulous numbers,
between the beginning of May and the middle of September, some few
stragglers occasionally remaining even to the close of December; but
between the beginning of June and end of September, they remain on the
islands in grand force. The haunts of these creatures during the winter
season, after leaving the islands, are doubtful; but it is supposed
that they take up quarters by a southward migration to the Pacific
coasts of the United States. At all events, it is known that in the
stomachs of the voracious Killer-Whales and Sharks the remains of these
and other species of Seal are not unfrequently obtained by the whalers
in the region in question; and likewise the Indians of the North-west
American coast, as low as California, then capture them in numbers.

The males, when full-grown, are between six and seven feet long, the
females not being over four to four feet and a half in length, from
head to tail. The former will weigh between four to six hundred pounds,
the latter scarcely reaching one hundred pounds, but oftener eighty
or less. The male, with a greyish shoulder, has the rest of the body
varying from a reddish-grey to deep, almost pure, black; the nose
and lips are brownish; the breast and abdomen with more of an orange
and reddish-brown tint; the naked parts of the hind limbs are much
blacker. The female is considerably lighter, being nearly uniform
grey above, and brownish-grey on the sides. The young, previous to
the first moult, is uniformly glossy black, with a yellowish-brown
tint on the under parts. As it grows older, it becomes gradually
lighter, especially in the females, and the two sexes then can hardly
be distinguished. The distinction even in the young animal between the
long, coarse hairs of the outer coat, and the dense silky fur of the
inner coat, is very marked. There is occasionally some variation in
the colour of the sexes, both as regards age and otherwise, but the
above is that most common. The male of this Fur Seal does not attain
its full size until about the sixth year, although it breeds at the
fourth year. The females bear their first young when three years of
age. The breeding-ground, or “rookery,” as the colony of the Seals is
termed, lies among the belt of loose rocks along the shores, between
high-water line and the base of the cliffs, and varies in width from
60 to 150 feet. There are, besides, sand-beaches of large extent, and
these stretch more inland to grassy hillocks; the said areas are used
as temporary resting-places, playgrounds, and neutral territory, where
young, old, and infirm or wounded may resort to undisturbed. To these
sandy beaches and uplands the term “Hauling-grounds” is given, from the
manner in which the Seals drag themselves out of the water in going
towards them.

[Illustration: “ROOKERY” OF FUR SEALS.]

From whatever reason, the adult males seem to leave the herd and betake
themselves to the Pribyloff Islands in the spring months, when, in the
first few days of May, they make their appearance, and in a suspicious,
doubtful manner swim idly about, apparently reluctant to land. Soon,
however, the older “bulls” approach the loose rocky shore, and commence
to locate themselves. Each individual animal takes possession of a
piece of ground about ten feet square, and, as those fresh from the sea
approach, there begins a series of battles as to which is to retain
the ground first occupied. All during the month of May, and even to
the first week of June, this terrible warfare proceeds incessantly,
and those next the water have to resist all comers, or themselves be
forced farther back. Meantime, from the beginning till almost towards
the end of June, the pregnant females make their appearance, first in
small numbers, until the great body arrive in mass at the close of
the month. Each male retains his position as best he can, whilst some
of the females hesitate to land, calling out as if in search of some
particular mate. The males coaxingly strive to inveigle them ashore,
and no sooner do the females approach than they are laid hold of,
and a general warfare among the whole “rookery” ensues. The quiet,
unoffending, small-sized females are subjected to dreadful usage.
The strong and powerful males secure, where possible, from twelve to
fifteen partners in their seraglio, but to retain these is indeed a
most serious business. Day and night the males, who have never left
their station for at least six weeks, have still to keep watch and
ward over their accommodating spouses, the only sense of _meum_ and
_tuum_ being force. If the master of the harem dare for a moment to
doze, down comes his more wideawake neighbour from behind, to obtain
by foul means what he cannot obtain by fair; or some slippery partner,
desirous of change, seeks to escape the bondage of her lord. Then
ensues internecine and domestic strife, in which all the neighbouring
males join, whenever there is a chance of capturing a coveted female.
The poor wives suffer equally with their spouses--trampled, bitten,
and dashed about. It results that he alone keeps who has the power
to withstand his numerous assailants. Some of the females may have
the fortune to get more comfortably settled than others, which are
bandied from one location to another, until most of the males obtain
a few partners, the lucky ones in front securing and holding the
greatest number, those behind being obliged to content themselves with
half-a-dozen or thereabouts.

A few days only have elapsed, and matters settled down more quietly,
when the females give birth each to a single one. The little fellows
soon find their voice--a kind of bleat like a young lamb’s,--begin
paddling about, and then suckle. They gorge themselves heartily with
the rich creamy milk. But, strange to say, the mother seems remarkably
indifferent to her offspring; and, if it stray beyond the limits of the
family group, it may be abducted by the other Seals for all that she
cares.

[Illustration: SEAL FIGHT.]

About this time, many of the old males who have successfully held their
position become exhausted, and now and again the less fortunate or
single males behind, in stronger or fresher condition, drive the former
from their posts, and the latter take their places. There is no wonder
that exhaustion succeeds. Indeed, one of the most remarkable features
in the history of these Sea Lions is that for two months and more these
heroic males, that arrived fat and plump from their winter quarters,
have held their positions on land against all comers, and this without
tasting food, water, or almost sleep during this period. It seems
scarcely credible that animals incessantly on the watch, excited and
bearing the brunt of sanguinary contests, should be able to undergo
starvation under such circumstances. This fact is almost unique in
natural history; for, though hibernation for long periods is common to
the Bear, Hedgehog, &c., their winter sleep is accompanied by cessation
of all bodily exertion, and the functions of circulation, respiration,
and digestion are comparatively at a standstill. In truth, how this and
other species of Otaria, for the habit is not limited to the Fur Seal,
endure such a lengthened abstinence, physiology fails to explain.

While the families, in groups as afore mentioned, with their dominate
lords, hold the favourite grounds, the great mass of the younger
members of the community are not thoroughly excluded from the domains
of the “rookery.” By common consent, here and there long narrow lanes
of neutral ground are left open from the beach upwards, and along these
continually pass to and fro the non-breeding animals. These go to the
rear, where they pack themselves in a kind of general medley, their
gregarious nature leading them there to swarm.

The young animals in the beginning of August begin to take to the
water, with which they soon become familiar, frolicking about, and
returning like lazy Dogs to sleep after their exertions. They grow
fast, and gathering in squads swarm over the whole “rookery.” The
colony now begins to break up from the family-parties first instituted.
Some besport themselves, or possibly feed in the neighbourhood;
others range on the sandy and grassy uplands, in groups of hundreds
to thousands, and seem to play and enjoy themselves in a rollicking,
lively manner. Their gambolling is very good-natured, then seldom
quarrelling. They appear to delight in dashing through the breakers,
and “hauling up” on the surf-beaten shore. In dull, foggy weather, they
crowd close together in myriads, and a bright, warm day sends them off
quickly to the water, seemingly to avoid heat.

What they live on during all this period it is difficult to state, for
the fish round the island appear to be driven off on the arrival of the
Sea Lions. They, nevertheless, subsist and thrive. In the stomachs of
most of the older animals several pounds’ weight of pebbles are usually
found.

At one time 100,000 young males were killed annually, the females not
being interfered with. This will show how enormous the number of Seals
on these islands was. But the slaughter has not always been wisely
regulated. When the Russian American Company first hunted, up till
1837, they ran great danger of exterminating all, killing every animal
regardless of sex; and complications have occasionally arisen between
the United States and Great Britain about the right of fishery, the
former Government being desirous of preventing the extinction of the
Seals, and on that account claiming a wide jurisdiction in the Behring
Sea. Mr. Elliott, by roughly numbering the animals in a family group,
and estimating the given area of the “rookeries” when the greatest mass
are on shore, calculated the total numbers at between four and five
millions.

The killing of these Seals is quite a peculiar occupation of the
islanders. After the breeding season, the hunters take advantage of the
dull and foggy weather, and creep down between the herd and the water.
Then suddenly rising and shouting together they drive landwards the
affrighted animals, though many of course escape. Closing on them, they
allow the females and the very old males by degrees to pass, and then
drive the remainder at a slow rate towards the killing-ground, some
distance off. Watchers remain over night with them, and in the morning,
when the Seals have rested and cooled down, the work of slaughter
begins. Squads of forty or fifty are separated, and the islanders
then surround these in a body, the animals meantime huddling together
and treading over each other’s flippers, cannot well attack or defend
themselves, and they are then clubbed by blows on the head. While
this bloody process is going on, a number of the men dexterously skin
the animals, and others look after the blubber, and such parts as are
useful for food and other purposes.

STELLER’S SEA LION,[210] OR THE HAIR SEAL OF THE
PRIBYLOFFS, is an animal in some respects not unlike the Fur Seal
originally described by the aforesaid Russian naturalist. But it is a
much more powerful animal, and though in contiguity to its congener
originally named by this author Sea Bear, it differs in habits as well
as in other particulars, besides the broad fact of its possessing such
sparse, and, when old, such absence of under-wool that it comes to be
classed as a true Hair Seal. The male and female animal are of unequal
size; the former attains a bodily length of eleven or twelve feet, and
a weight of 1,000 lbs. and more, while the latter is barely more than
half the dimensions and weight of her partner. The male has quite a
leonine appearance and bearing, and often exhibits great ferocity of
expression. His colour is of a golden rufous tint, darker behind, or
occasionally with brownish patches, the limbs more nearly approaching
black. Some variation occurs with regard to the brindling and hue
generally, the female being slightly paler than the male.

Their movements on land, though in many respects similar to, are not
so free as those of the Fur Seal, and never are they found far from
the water. Some of them herd along with the Fur Seals, their powerful
organisation enabling them to hold and retain the shore locations.
They, however, congregate in breeding-grounds slightly apart. While
polygamous, they have not the regular system, nor give such attention
to their harem as does the _Callorhinus_. In comparison with the
latter, their numbers on the Pribyloffs are not great, in all between
thirty and forty thousand. They are shy creatures, and, as Elliott
remarks, on the slightest approach of man, a stampede into the water is
the certain result.

[Illustration: SEA LIONS ON THE FARALLONE ISLANDS.]

Their voice is said to be a deep and grand roar, and when in mass has
been likened to the howling of a tempest. The males come to these
islands in the beginning of May, and the females a month later. The
young are soon born, and at birth average twenty to twenty-five pounds,
and two feet long, and then are of a dark chocolate-brown colour, with
great watery grey-blue eyes. They shed their coat in October and become
lighter, but do not precisely resemble their parents until they grow
more adult.

This animal being destitute of fur, its skin is of little value; but
their hides, their fat, their flesh, their sinews, and intestines, are
all useful to the Aleutian islanders. The last, the throat-linings, and
the skin of the flippers, are tanned into excellent leather, and both
waterproof coats and the natives’ boots (_tarbosars_) are made out of
them. Oil-vessels are made from the stomachs, the sinews are used for
threads for binding their skin-canoes, and to the flesh of this species
there is given a decided preference.

Steller’s Sea Lion has a wider distribution, probably, than _O.
ursina_, and stretches around Kamstchatka and the Asiatic coast to the
Kurile Islands. Moreover, on the American coast as far as California
they are occasionally met with. Indeed, one of the sights at San
Francisco is the “Ocean House,” a large hotel opposite the Seal Rocks
at the mouth of the bay, whence a good view is obtained of a “rookery”
of Sea Lions, now rigidly preserved by the American Government.
They also inhabit the Farallone Islands about thirty miles from San
Francisco.

The natives of Kamstchatka, to the coast of Siberia, capture the Sea
Lions differently from the Pribyloff Islanders. In the summer months,
Salmon swarm at the mouths of the rivers, the Seals following and
preying on them. Strong wide-meshed nets, made of Seal-thong, are
staked in a curve open to the confluence of the stream. The fish find a
free passage, but the pursuing Seals become entangled, and the natives
in flat-bottomed skin-boats approach and despatch the victims with
rude bone implements. In the spring and fall they capture them on the
floating ice, and during winter watch for their rising out of their
breathing-holes to rest awhile, while the hunter deals destruction from
behind a snow-bank or ice-cake. These natives convert the prepared hide
for the Dog and Reindeer sledges and other purposes, and the blubber is
a godsend.

GILLIESPIE’S HAIR SEAL,[211] OR SCHLEGEL’S JAPANESE
OTARY.--This animal also inhabits the bays and islands of the
Californian coast, but the first good account of it came from the
pen of Professor Schlegel, of Leyden, in his “Fauna Japonica,”
though, curiously enough, he confounded it with Steller’s Sea Lion.
It undoubtedly frequents the Japanese coasts, and, possibly, other
spots in the North Pacific. Dr. Macbain, in describing a skull from
California, showed its specific distinction. Indeed, from its having
one pair less of upper molars, a narrow muzzle and facial profile, and
great skull-crest, it has been placed by Gill and others in a separate
genus (_Zalophus_). But as before indicated, we prefer to consider the