488 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 192 8 



northward migration large numbers of finbacks have appeared in 

 the Gulf of Maine early in March. (Clark, 1887, p. 230.) Other 

 good-sized schools have been observed in May and June. Finbacks 

 approach the south coast of Newfoundland as early as June. Off 

 the northern coast of Newfoundland and Labrador they appear in 

 mid-July and are most numerous in August. An unusual abundance 

 of finbacks was noted on the Grand Banks near Newfoundland on 

 July 13, 1885. (True, 1904, p. 65.) They are common summer visi- 

 tors to Davis Strait and the cod banks off the west coast of Green- 

 land. (Brown, 1875, p. 83.) Finbacks have been observed near Ice- 

 land as early as March, but most of them are taken along the Green- 

 land ice in July and August. (Southwell, 1905, p. 408.) They become 

 less numerous toward autumn. We are told by Hinton (1925, p. 

 128) that almost all of the whales passing the west coast of Ireland 

 (Belmullet) in May appear to be moving in a northeasterly direc- 

 tion. From June to September finbacks follow the " Kril " off 

 Rona's Voe and then disappear in a southwesterly direction. (Mil- 

 lais, 1906, p. 247.) Finbacks seem to occur at all seasons on the coast 

 of Norway in mild winters, and strandings on the British coast 

 have been rej^orted from January to December. (Harmer, 1927, p. 

 64.) They follow the herring shoals in the winter along the west 

 coast of Norway and the capelan in their visit to the Finmark coast 

 in the spring. (Hinton, 1925, p. 127.) During the summer months 

 large numbers of finbacks congregate in the vicinity of Spitzbergen 

 and Bear Island. Pairing has been observed on the Murman coast 

 during May and in the vicinity of Finmark from January to March. 

 (Hinton, 1925, pp. 118, 119.) 



Thousands of finbacks have been observed near the close of the 

 whaling season between Iceland and Faroe according to Haldane 

 (1907, p. 11). Toward September finbacks pass Ireland in a south- 

 westerly direction and they have been observed heading south in the 

 Bay of Biscay in October. They are also known to occur in the 

 vicinity of the Azores and in the Mediterranean Sea. Southwell 

 (1905, p. 411) is the authority for the statement that the finbacks 

 leave the Newfoundland coast in October, and yet Millais (1906, p. 

 247) was informed by whalers that numbers of humpback, finback, 

 and blue whales winter among the field ice on the Grand Banks off 

 Newfoundland. It would seem that the summer feeding grounds of 

 some of the finback and blue-whale herds may be occupied during the 

 winter months by those that have spent the summer in the far north. 



As regards the South Atlantic, Morch (1911, p. 665) states that 

 great numbers of finbacks congregate in the waters along the Brazil 

 coast between south latitudes 12° and 18° every year during the 

 period from May to November. They occur in the vicinity of South 

 Georgia from November 15 to as late as the last week in May. 



