Translation 2783

..... 132
The harem rookeries break, up in the middle of February. After matinj;
the females continue to suckle their young, and they remain with tuera
until the latter learn to swim and to procure t)-)eir own food inde--
pendently. The duration of the moultin;^ period is unknown. The
principal items in the fur seals' diet are cepha,loçods, severa7. species
of large crustaceans, . and various species of non-economic f islies
i ri'h;rrsites, C?.r.ella, etc . ) .
The stocks of i.ew Zealand fur seal s were seriously depleted
at the end of the '1£3th century and the beginning of the 19th, when
seal-hunters took some hundreds of thousands of them every year.
About 1840 . the number of the seails Wtis so much reduced that tney -were
no longer of conmr_iercial interest.
At prescrit tue killing of these
seals is totally prohibited. It is believed that ,he present number
of New Zealand fur seals is at least 50,000.
Southern Sea Lion (Otaria byr..oriia Llainville, 1 620) -)
n According to Rice and Scheffer (1968) , trie scientific name
of the sout;ierii sea lion is Otar.ia flavo scens ( Shaw, 1F300) .
The basic colour of the Iliale soutiiern üo-a, lion is dark--brown,
the bell;r bein„ li^hter ( darlc-^yel.low) . 'l'hE?r^: is a l.i.^•)^t-br.o^-n I;i^.ne
on the head of ,;he inale ( Fig. 34).
The females also are of a darkbrown
colour, but the upper part of the head and neck has a yellow
tinge, and the back is dark-yellow.
Some animals with ligh-t;er colourin;;
appear among both the males and the females. ijew•-born pups
have black fur, but. later it becomes dark-choçolate in colour, and
at the end. of the first year of life the juveniles have acquired a
yellowish--br.ovin colour.
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