472 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 2 8 



could visit one or more of these areas if necessary to complete their 

 cargo. 



By plotting the operating seasons on these whaling grounds, the 

 ship logs giving the locations and dates of the whales taken, the 

 records of shore stations giving the time of arrival of the whales in 

 their vicinity, and the observation,s of experienced whalemen on 

 schools migrating in definite directions, as well as those of naturalists 

 who have given some thought to this problem, we find that there is 

 a surprising amount of evidence bearing on the seasonal north and 

 south migrations of wliales to and from their breeding grounds. 

 It is hoped that more accurate information on the extent of the 

 migration of whales will result from the use of disks by the Dis- 

 covery expedition (Kemp, 1928) in the vicinity of South Georgia and 

 that this practice may be extended to other regions. 



HUMPBACK (MEGAPTERA NODOSA) 



The accumulated evidence indicates that the humpback whales of 

 the northern and southern latitudes undertake migrations along well- 



FiGDKB 1. — Humpback wbale [Megaptcra nodosa (Bonnnterre) ]. Outliue drawing. 

 Notice the long foie flipper and the widely spaced throat grooves 



defined courses at definite seasons, and this is especially true in 

 southern latitudes. Generally speaking, the southern humpbacks 

 leave the Antarctic polar seas in the autumn, pass the winter in the 

 Tropics, and return to the Antarctics in the spring. The northern 

 humpbacks leave the Tropics in the spring or early summer, journey 

 toward the Arctics before the summer is far advanced, and return 

 southward in late fall or winter. These migrations are rather 

 closely connected with the breeding habits of the species. 



Females with calves apparently work their way toward the sum- 

 mer feeding grounds at a much slower rate and arrive somewhat 

 later in the season than bulls and nonbreeding cows. Surprising as 

 it may seem, there is evidence that some of the humpbacks in the 

 North Atlantic may remain in the open Arctic seas through the 

 winter months. Humpbacks journeying westward from the eastern 

 portions of the Arctic Ocean (listing, 1912, pp. 438, 440) have been 

 observed passing along the coast of Finmark in the months of Jan- 

 uary, February, and the early part of March. During the same 



