244 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



6 inches is exhibited in the British Museum (Natural History), 

 and, as pointed out by Sir Sidney Harmer, its length is slightly 

 greater than the flipper from a Blue Whale of 90 feet, which 

 length is almost double that of the Humpback. The lower 

 margin of the flipper has several large prominences, marking 

 the positions externally of the joints between the bones of 

 the fingers and of the wrist. The hinder margins of the 

 broad tail flukes are scalloped so that the edges have a serrated 

 appearance. 



The colour of the back is black, whilst on the ventral surface 

 a very variable amount of white may be present. It has been 

 suggested that the white on the under surface increases with 

 the age of the animal, and that immature specimens are more 

 often black below. The flippers are always white underneath, 

 and this absence of pigmentation may extend round the 

 anterior border on to the upper surface, where the amount of 

 black is rather variable. The flukes are usually white under- 

 neath and black or parti-coloured above. 



The whalebone is grey-black with bristles of the same colour, 

 but sometimes white blades may be found. About 400 blades 

 make up a "side", and the longest scarcely exceeds 24 inches. 



The fully-grown Humpback is about 50 feet long, but, as 

 already mentioned, its bulk is disproportionately great. A 

 comparison of the oil yield from one Blue Whale with the 

 yields from other whales gives some idea of this : 1 Blue Whale 

 is equivalent in oil production to 2 Fin Whales, to 2\ Hump- 

 backs, and to 6 Sei Whales. It will be remembered that the 

 Sei Whale exceeds the Humpback by 10 feet in length, and 

 the Finner exceeds the Humpback by 30 feet. 



The Humpback, like the Rorquals, is a widely distributed 

 species, occurring as it does in all the great oceans of the 

 world. It is coast-loving in its habits, frequenting bays and 

 inlets, and it may be for this very reason that so few get into 

 difficulties in shoal water. Allen in ' The Whalebone Whales 

 of New England ' says, "Although the Humpback sometimes 

 comes very close inshore it is very rarely indeed that one 

 becomes stranded ", and Harmer also in his ' Stranded W hales 

 Report, No. 10 ', remarks on their absence from these records, 

 although a certain number had been taken by British whaling 

 companies operating during the period covered by his report. 



