THE HUMPBACK WHALE, MEGAPTERA 



NODOSA 



By L. Harrison Matthews, M.A. 



(Plate II; Text-figs. 1-84) 



INTRODUCTION 



DURING the course of the Discovery investigations sixty-two Humpback whales have 

 been examined, thirty-one each of males and females; this report analyses and dis- 

 cusses the data obtained from them. 



The Humpback is a species of whale which has suffered greatly at the hands of the 

 whaling industry, so that it has declined in twenty-five years from being almost the sole 

 object of pursuit to an insignificant fraction of the total world catch. As a consequence 

 Humpback whales are only occasionally available for examination at the southern 

 whaling stations, and the data here considered were accumulated during the work of 

 seven whaling seasons. Small though this series of whales may be, no such detailed set 

 of observations on whales of this species has ever been available for study before. 



The information recorded during examination of the whales at the whaling stations 

 consisted of a routine system of measurements of various parts of the body that has been 

 adhered to throughout the investigations, notes on the external characters, baleen, food, 

 internal and external parasites, condition of the genitalia and degree of physical maturity. 

 Very rarely, however, has a complete set of observations been made on any one whale. 

 The information collected is discussed under the appropriate headings below, together 

 with certain information derived from other sources. 



I am indebted to my former colleague, Dr Francis C. Fraser, for making available 

 the records of whaling statistics in the British Museum (Natural History), and for 

 assistance in other ways; to Mr Martin A. C. Hinton for kindly reading the manuscript 

 of this report ; and to Dr A. S. Parkes for reading the portions dealing with reproduction. 

 It is a pleasure to express my thanks to them and to Dr Kemp. 



MATERIAL 



Particulars of the data collected by the Discovery staff relating to Humpback whales 

 are shown in Table I. The sources of other information considered together with these 

 are indicated in the appropriate sections below. 



The data available have been used for constructing an outline of the biology of this 

 species of whale. Taken alone they may be said, in many points, to be inadequate to 

 provide very definite conclusions. But it is suggested that reference to information 

 given on the biology of allied species, the Southern Blue and Fin whales, worked out 

 from extensive data by Mackintosh and Wheeler (1929), shows that the outline sketched 

 from the data referring to this species may, by analogy, be taken as a true representation 

 of the facts and that the conclusions drawn are correct. 



