RORQUALS 167 



their affection towards their young. The fact that 

 they will leap clean out of the water appears to 

 distinguish the whales of this genus from any other 

 whalebone whale. Guldbersr* states that this whale 



<_? 



carries its young for 10-12 months. Only one 

 (rarely two) are produced at a time. There is some 

 relation between size and time of gestation, for 

 Balcenoptera sibbaldii, a larger species, carries its 

 young over a year. Other Balsenopteras have the 

 same period of gestation as Megaptera. The foal, 

 as in whales generally, is when born \-\ of the 

 length of the mother. 



Dr. Gray thinks that Balcenoptera jubartes of 

 Lacepede f (=JBal&Ha boops of Linnaeus) is the same 

 whale as the common Rorqual, Balcenoptera musculus. 

 It seems, however, to be likely from the figure, bad 

 enough, it is true, that Lacepede gives of it, especially 

 on account of the "warts" upon the face, that the 

 animal is really the Humpback. It is related by 

 Lacepede that the animal was in his time let alone 

 by the Icelanders. Probably the real reason is that 

 which protects it at the present time, i.e., the in- 

 feriority of its valuable productions. But the author 

 whom we quote observes that the whale was held to 

 be the friend of man, like the Amazonian dolphin 

 referred to on p. 271. It is related that, when the 

 frail barques of the natives are surrounded by the 

 ferocious and carnivorous Cetacea of the north which 



* Zoolog.Jahrb., Syst. Theil, 1887, p. 127. 



t Histoire naturelle des Cetacees. Paris. Xllth year of the Republic 

 (1804). 



