232 THE SCOTTISH NATURALIST 



Our own Scottish statistics (1908-14) are as follows : 



June. July. Aug. Sept. Oct. Total. 



No Blue-whales were caught in May, and hardly any in 

 October ; but the amount of fishing in the latter month was 

 very small, and the apparent scarcity in October, following 

 suddenly as it does on the good catches of September, 

 means very little. The main season on our coasts is from 

 July to September, with a possible (but unproved) extension 

 into the later autumn. Ninety-three Blue-whales out of a 

 hundred and nine, or 85-3 per cent, were captured in these 

 three months of July to September. The season is a some- 

 what protracted one. During the said three months there is 

 little variation in abundance ; and this fact is in strong 

 contrast to what we have seen in the case of the Nordcaper 

 and the Sei-whale, perhaps also in the Sperm-whale, where 

 the maximal catch appears as a sharp cusp on the curve in 

 one particular month. 



The distribution over the several years was apparently 

 irregular; 1909 was the best year and 19 13 was very bad. 

 When we compare these yearly catches with those of the 

 Nordcaper we find a striking parallel ; the two whales were, 

 on the whole, scarce and plentiful in identical years (Fig. 4). 



No such correspondence exists between these and any of 

 our other whales, nor between any two or more of these 

 latter among themselves ; moreover, as we shall see directly, 

 the fishing grounds or places of capture for the two species 

 are very much the same. Now we know, since G. O. Sars' 

 discovery of the fact in 1874, that the Blue-whale like the 

 Nordcaper and the Greenland whale, is a plankton-feeder, 

 living on the smaller Crustacea, Copepods, Mysidae, etc. for 

 instance (or perhaps in particular) Boreophausia inermis 

 that is to say on what the whale-fishers call "kril." And 



