24 



DISCOVERY REPORTS 



10 II \Z 13 14 



Length of Whale in metres 



10 II 12 13 



Length of Whale in metres 



Fig. 17. Male Humpback whales. Measurement 

 no. 20. Length of severed head from condyle 

 to tip. 



Fig. 18. Female Humpback whales. Measurement 

 no. 20. Length of severed head from condyle 

 to tip. 



15 



10 II 12 13 



Length of Whale in metres 

 19. Male Humpback whales. Measurement 

 no. 21. Greatest width of skull. 



II 12 13 



Length of Whale in metres 



Fig. 19. Male Humpback whales. Measurement Fig. 20 

 The graphs are from data obtained at South Georgia. Data from South Africa are indicated by O. 



Female Humpback whales. Measurement 

 no. 21. Greatest width of skull. 



COLOUR 



The general coloration of the Humpback whale is black above and white below, but, 

 as is well known, a great variety of individual variation in the respective amounts of 

 black and white occurs, no two specimens being identical in colour. Lillie (191 5) 

 classified the coloration of the New Zealand Humpback whales on which he worked 

 into four main and three intermediate types. His figure illustrating the four main types 

 is here reproduced for reference (Fig. 38), the three intermediate types being 1-2, 2-3, 

 3-4. Lillie shows that the black dorsal coloration tends to creep down round the sides 

 in three bands which coalesce in the extreme type, one behind the flipper and over the 

 posterior part of the ventral grooves, one below the dorsal fin, and one a short distance 

 proximal to the insertion of the tail flukes. His colour groups are stages in the pro- 

 gressive covering of the ventral surface by the encroachment of the dorsal black pigment 

 over the flanks and belly. 



The analysis of the coloration of the Humpback whales examined by the Discovery 

 staff from South Georgia and South Africa (treated together), compared with Lillie's 

 Terra-Nova Expedition New Zealand whales, is given in Table X. The Discovery data 

 refer to fifty-three specimens, twenty-five males and twenty-eight females : those of the 

 Terra-Nova refer to thirty specimens, seventeen males and thirteen females. Lillie's 



