THE HUMPBACK WHALE 35 



figures are here converted into percentages. From the table it will be seen that the 

 South Georgian and South African whales are more commonly darkly coloured than 

 otherwise, though it is of interest to notice that the lightest coloured male and female 

 both occur in South Africa. On the other hand, this does not indicate that the South 

 African whales are generally lighter, for most of the South African whales of both sexes 

 occur in group 4. The number of Humpback whales examined in South Africa is not 

 great enough to warrant separate tabulation, but dark coloration appears to prevail 

 there as in the South Georgian whales. There is, however, a considerable colour 

 difference between the Discovery whales from South Georgia and South Africa and 

 the Terra-Nova whales from New Zealand. In New Zealand Lillie found that the 

 extremes of coloration were rarest and the intermediates commonest, in marked contrast 

 to the Discovery whales in which the dark end of the colour scale is by far the com- 

 monest. The Discovery and Terra-Nova whales agree, however, in that the females tend 

 to be darker than the males. These colour differences point to the possibility of some 

 degree of segregation between the South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and New Zealand 

 herds of Humpback whales. In this connexion Morch (191 1) makes an interesting 

 statement regarding the coloration of Humpback whales at South Georgia, in the days 

 of the great Humpback fishery there (1910 and 191 1). He says, " at certain times all the 

 Humpbacks that are brought in have the belly nearly white; this variety may then dis- 

 appear and those caught for some time may have the belly marbled ; schools with the 

 belly entirely dark may then put in an appearance, succeeded by the first variety and 

 so on". If the information given to Morch was correct, it certainly points to a high 

 degree of segregation of colour types, and it is to be regretted that further particulars 

 as to the sex, average length, and so on of these colour groups are not available. 



In all Humpback whales the black areas are marked with streaks, spots, rings and 

 circles of white, and the white areas with similar markings of black. These markings 

 are usually particularly numerous near the borders of the areas of the respective colours. 

 Only in those examples which are practically black all over are these small markings of 

 the opposite colour nearly absent. A splash of white on each side of the under surface 

 of the snout is a common and fairly constant marking in about one-third of the whales. 

 It occurs in 28 per cent of males and 35-6 per cent of females, and was recorded only in 

 the heavily pigmented whales of groups 3-4 and 4. A variation of group 4 was recorded 

 in which the flukes have a greater or less proportion of white on the under surface. Spots 

 or flecks of white on the under surface of the flukes of whales of group 4 occurred in 

 12 per cent of males and 7 per cent of females, while the greater part of the under surface 

 of the flukes was white in 8 per cent of males and 14 per cent of females (Plate II, figs, i 

 and 2). The outer surface of the flipper was white in 16 per cent of males (of colour 

 groups 3-4 and 4), but this colour pattern did not occur at all in females. Haldane 

 (1905), however, records a black female with white outer side to the flipper and gives 

 a good photograph of a black male with white flippers. The whales he examined were 

 landed at the Shetland Islands. Kellog (1929) gives a photograph of a black male with 

 flippers white on both sides, taken at Newfoundland. 



