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Show 384 MR. R. COLLETT ON THE GREY SEAL. [Mar. 1, At this point the young ones begin, as it were, a new stage of their existence. Before the moulting takes place they are very stupid and wanting in shyness, and seldom attempt to escape at the sight of human beings; but when they have been left to themselves, and have once taken to the water, they become quite as cautious as the old ones. It is the same with those young^ ones which, as before mentioned, take to the water for different reasons; their presence of mind becomes more rapidly developed than in those which remain quietly on the rocks : although these can sometimes be approached very closely by boats, and even killed by the blow of an oar, they are, as a rule, extremely shy. As soon as the young one has been left to its own resources, and to look for its own subsistence, it decreases rapidly in weight, and during the course of the winter often loses all the blubber it has acquired during the first period of its existence. At the same time the rapid growth ceases ; so that in the spring it has only increased a trifle in length, and has hardly acquired any additional weight since the autumn. C. Copulation. Immediately after the birth of the young one, copulation of the sexes takes place. If the female does not come down into the water of her own accord, the male goes up on the rock and drives her down, as the copulation only takes place in the water, during which they take up the same position as dogs and other four-footed animals. The female, however, is never entirely submerged, the snout being constantly kept above water, as is also the case with the male's head. Copulation apparently takes place several times. The Grey Seal lives in a regular state of polygamy, as the strongest male drives all the younger males away, and lives with several females. At the same time the number of females one of the stronger sex can gather together is seldom very considerable, sometimes only two, and very rarely above four or five. This, however, is very difficult to arrive at with any degree of certainty, as the animals are in a constant state of activity during the breeding-time, and both sexes swim about together without passing much time on the land, as is the case with many other Seals. If a breeding-rock be so small that there is only room for two or three females, there is never more than one male to be found; but on larger rocks, where females and young lie beside one another, there are always several males to be seen, although never in such great numbers as the females. In the autumn of 1874 one of Mr. Borthen's seal-hunters found six young Seals with their respective mothers on a rock with only one male; this, however, was an unusually large number. No mutual fidelity exists between the sexes; copulation seems to take place indiscriminately, whenever an opportunity presents itself for the male. If a single couple have settled down on a rock they may possibly be faithful to one another for a time, but only until a more powerful male presents himself and drives the other male away. Under such circumstances desperate fights ensue, of which |