478 ANNUAL REPOKT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



hunted for humpbacks in the vicinity of the Marianne (or Ladrone) 

 Islands and the Marshall Islands during the winter months. We 

 learn from Andrews (1916, p. 77) that humpbacks were observed late 

 in January at the southern end of Formosa, and that others were 

 taken at Oshimi, Japan, in February (Andrews, 1916, p. 60). Dur- 

 ing the same month humpbacks were observed near Ulsan, Korea. 

 This indicates that some of the migrating whales pass through the 

 Japan Sea to Okhotsk Sea (Bolau, 1895, p. 18) and that others follow 

 the Pacific side of the Japanese Islands to the Kamchatka coast. 



In reviewing what has been said it may be noted that the northern 

 herds pass the Arctic Circle to reach their feeding grounds, while 

 the bulk of the southern herds rarely pass the Antarctic Circle on 

 account of the pack ice. 



BOWIIEAD (BALAENA M YSTICETUS ) 



Bowheads are migratory animals and change their station accord- 

 ing to season. They approach the pole in the summer and appear in 



FiGuitE o. — Bowhead or Greenland whale [Balaena mjisticetus Linnaeus]. Outline 

 drawing. Notice the relatively great size of the liead and the absence of throat 

 grooves 



the winter near shores where they are never seen during the milder 

 seasons. Formerly their range extended from Spitzbergen westward 

 to eastern Siberia, but the Holland whalers exterminated the bow- 

 heads in the Spitzbergen area before 1800. Large numbers of spring 

 migrants coming from the southwest were observed by Dutch sailors 

 who wintered on the Island of Jan Mayen in 1633-34. The first bow- 

 heads were seen on March 27, and from then on they were observed 

 daily until the end of April. From Southwell (1898, p. 401) we 

 learn that the migrating bowheads reached Prince Charles Foreland, 

 Spitzbergen, by the middle of May and that they remained in the 

 vicinity until the end of June, when they disappeared for the season 

 in a northwesterly direction. After the middle of June they fre- 

 quented the seas from 72° to 75° north latitude and 13° west longi- 

 tude off the east coast of Greenland. During August and early in 

 September the southward migrating bowheads followed the shallow 

 water of the east coast of Greenland. Thus on the east side of Green- 



