686 A. E. Verrlll— The Bermuda Islands. 



From what is known of the migratory habits of the Hump-backs, 

 on the American coasts, they probably go south in the autumn, as far 

 at least as the West Indies, or even South America, to spend the 

 winter, and while there bring forth their young. In the last of the 

 winter or early spring they start northward, probably following, for 

 the most part, the course of the Gulf Stream. But groups of them, 

 mostly females with their young, were in the habit of tarrying, dur- 

 ing the spring months, about the Bermudas, leaving for the northern 

 waters about the last of May or first half of June, and sometimes not 

 till July. Perhaps the same individuals did not remain there all that 

 time, but those that left early may have been replaced by later 

 arrivals from the south. 



Whether any of the young ones were ordinarily born in Bermuda 

 waters is uncertain.* From the small size of some of the "cubs" 

 taken with their mothers (15 feet long) it is not improbable that 

 some were born there ; but most of the cubs were 20 to 30 feet long, 

 and those must have been born in more southern seas. We do not 

 have many facts as to the rate of growth of these young whales, 

 but probably it takes several months for them to become 25 feet long. 



It appears, from the earty accounts, that the females with their 

 cubs used to come into shallow water, near the shores and reefs ; 

 sometimes, though rarely, they penetrated through the reefs by the 

 channels and entered the lagoon, as far as Murray anchorage, at least. 



An instance of this kind is recorded in 1803, by an officer of 

 H. M. S. " Leander," who stated that a whale, probably of this 

 species, in Murray anchorage, while he was near it in a cutter, leaped 

 like a salmon, with a sudden spring, entirely out of the sea, so that 

 its body was horizontal in the air and half its breadth above the 

 water. It caused a great commotion when it fell heavily back into 

 the sea, " with a thundering crash." 



Early writers speak of its playing with its young, often tossing 

 them quite out of the water with its snout, when so near the south 

 shore that they could be easily observed. This was done particularly 

 in pleasant moonlight nights. But no such sight has been seen 

 during the past sixty years, so far as I can learn. 



Bermuda newspapers have records of the capture of single speci- 

 mens, mostly young, showing quite conclusively that they have been 

 comparatively rare for sixty years or more. 



* The whale fishermen at Bermuda do not think that the whales were in the 

 habit of breeding there. 



