COMPARISON WITH EARLIER ACCOUNTS i33 



considerable regularity, but in general the time the animals will remain submerged is most uncertain'. 

 Whether this has any connexion with the depth of the food is not known and it was unfortunately 

 impracticable on the Skua to tow nets with the object of locating it. 



Feeding 



Dudley (1725, p. 262) has made a suggestion that has often been copied by later writers (Buchet, 

 1895 ; Racovitza, 1903) that Fin whales 'with a short turn, cause an Eddy or Whirlpool by the Force 

 of which, the small Fish are brought together into a Cluster ; so that the whale with open Mouth, will 

 take in some Hundreds of them at a Time '. The practice has not been seen by the writer. 



The swarming habit of Euphausia superba, the staple of whale food around South Georgia, is a 

 characteristic to which Hardy & Gunther (1935) have already drawn attention. Patches of krill at the 

 surface of the sea, similar to, but more pronounced than, those noted on p. 124 have been observed by 

 the writer in areas marked by a conspicuous absence of whales, which need not be instrumental, 

 therefore, in bringing the swarms about. The belief would seem to have arisen as a fisherman's 

 explanation of the swarming and its frequent association with 'boltering' whales (see p. 131). 



Millais (1906, p. 255), who also passes the story on, states 'After one or two subsidiary circles to 

 drive their prey together, they give a sudden start forward, at the same time turning on their side and 

 erecting the pectoral fin'. Erection of the flipper has been noted on p. 124 and is also figured by 

 Andrews (1909, plate XL, fig. i). It would §eem likely to help the whale both to turn on to its side 

 and to lessen the radius of its track. 



Gambols 



Compared to the Humpback, Fin whales are described as seldom indulging in gambols or other 

 antics, though movements that are not habitual are sometimes noted. Scammon (1874, p. 35) writes: 

 ' It frequently gambols about vessels at sea, in mid-ocean as well as close in with the coast, darting 

 under them, or shooting swiftly through the water on either side ; at one moment upon the surface, 

 belching forth its quick ringing spout, and the next instant submerging itself beneath the waves, as 

 if enjoying a spirited race with the ship dashing along under a press of sail. ' But this author is alone 

 in noting that the Fin whale sometimes heaves its flukes out. The present writer is able to confirm an 

 observation made by Allen (1916, p. 194) that one or other but never both flukes leave the surface. 



Millais (1906, p. 218) has referred to an observation that when a party of Killers were attacking 

 a Common Rorqual, the main herd of whales about a mile to windward, began lashing about on the 

 surface to give the alarm, and were seen then to make off at great speed in all directions. Later (p. 268) 

 he states that the flukes never leave the surface, so that the lashing might have been with the head or 

 flipper. 



Allen (1916, p. 194) states that 'The Finback whale seems but rarely to leap out of water'. One is 

 reported to have done so after it had sustained injury upon some rocks, and he quotes another instance 

 of breeching reported by Prof. W. Kukenthal. 



Breeding habits 



The available descriptions of courting and of other breeding habits admit of the possibility of a 

 variety of methods by which union of bull and cow or cow and calf might be effected, but all writers, 

 so far as is known, have omitted to stress the principles underlying the manner of approach of the 

 partners to one another (Dudley, 1725, p. 260; Haldane, 1906, p. 133; Southwefl 1906, p. 195; and 

 others). 



As bodies floating in the water and unpossessed of prehensile limbs, they lack the purchase on terra 

 firma by means of which animals on diy land are able to make physical contact. This disabihty would 



