248 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



on the surface or, again, swims just below with its back exposed, 

 or rolls over and over with the great flippers waving in the 

 air. Most spectacular of all is when, as it frequently does, it 

 breaches, leaping clear of the water and falling back again with 

 a tremendous splash. The various antics of the Humpback, 

 recognized and given particular names by the American 

 whalers in such words as " breaching ", " rolling ", " finning ", 

 " lobtailing " and " scooping ", give some impression of the 

 extent and variety of movement of which this animal is 

 capable. 



The Humpback is generally more heavily parasitized exter- 

 nally than are any of the Rorquals. Whale lice and two species 

 of barnacle are commonly found. The lice cling to the skin 

 by hooklike legs and occur on various parts of the body, whilst 

 one of the species of barnacle has a special predilection for the 

 summits of the tubercles and protuberances on the head and 

 flippers, although it may be found also in other regions. A 

 smaller species of barnacle occurs chiefly on the lips and on 

 the posterior margin of the tail. It is more deeply sunk into 

 the skin than is the other kind, so that usually only the star- 

 shaped summit of the shell is seen. On the first-mentioned 

 barnacle bunches of still another, a stalked barnacle, are often 

 found, which very rarely indeed parasitizes the Humpback 

 directly. 



The Humpback is one of the few species other than the 

 Right Whales that were hunted before the adoption of modern 

 methods. Scammon describes how it used to be captured by 

 the Eskimos and the natives of the Aleutian Islands. It was 

 hunted, too, on the American coast with common hand harpoon 

 or lance and, as the carcase sinks, the whalers had to wait 

 till decomposition within the animal's body generated sufficient 

 gas to inflate it and float it to the surface again. 



Modern whaling methods concentrate first on the Humpback 

 in any new area. It is a good oil producer for its size, and does 

 not present the same difficulty of capture as the larger Rorquals. 

 It is found close inshore, so that the catchers do not require to 

 make long sea trips to find their quarry. The experience of 

 whalers in pursuit of Humpbacks has been the same in whatever 

 part of the world the work has been carried on. The Hump- 

 backs, at first plentiful on the coast, diminish rapidly in 



