LOCOMOTION AND LOCOMOTORY ORGANS 



97 



Figure jj. A Humpback surfacing. Photograph : W. H. Dawbin, Sidney. 



enormous weight, are no less agile, particularly the Humpback, a real 

 acrobat, which can jump right out of the water and then flop back with 

 a resounding smack (Fig. 58). This animal also likes to roll on the 

 surface, slapping the water with its flukes and wing-shaped pectoral 

 fins as he does so. The slaps can often be heard many miles away. 

 Moreover, Humpbacks like to swim on their backs for a while and to 

 display their white bellies. They often turn whole series of somersaults both 

 above and also under the water. On 21st October, 1955, W. Bannan and 

 T. J. Hermans, two officers aboard the Sibajak (Royal Rotterdam Lloyd) 

 came across this kind of play off the Australian East Coast, and made a 

 little sketch of it (Fig. 59). The Humpback's antics are, moreover, com- 

 memorated on a postage stamp, one of quite a few, by the way, on which 

 various Cetaceans appear. This is the Falkland Island sixpenny stamp 

 (1833 to 1933). 



Other Rorquals, though less proficient, can also jump right out of the 

 water. J. B. Colam watched a Blue Whale doing so off" Durban in 1950, 

 and Captain Mörzer Bruins stated that, on 28th January, 1956, during a 

 trip on the Piet Hein, he saw a Sei Whale jump full length out of the 

 water, south of Waiglo (New Guinea) . Sperm Whales (and to a lesser 

 extent. Little Piked Whales) are past-masters at jumping, too, but often 

 half their body remains submerged. 



