COMMON FINBACK WHALE. 221 



It at once appears from a consideration of this table that Finback Whales are most com- 

 monly met with off the eastern coasts of New England between April and October, both in- 

 clusive; are less common in March and November and December; while in January and 

 February they are rarely seen. These facts indicate that during the colder months Finback 

 Whales leave our shores in some degree, but there can be little doubt that temperature, although 

 a determining cause, is of indirect influence only to the extent that it affects the distribution 

 or abundance of the organisms on which the whales subsist. The deposit of fat or blubber 

 which encases the whale must act to protect the animal from discomfort through changes of 

 water temperatures of moderate degree, but where this deposit is very thin as inside the mouth, 

 the cooler temperature of the water must tend somewhat to lower that of the body. Yet 

 Finbacks are common during summer in the Arctic seas where the waters are much colder than 

 off our Massachusetts coast at the same season, which shows that they can accommodate 

 themselves to a moderate range of temperature. 



That it is the presence or absence of food which governs the appearance of these whales, 

 and notably the season of abundance of herring in our waters, will I think, be apparent from 

 further analysis of these records. 



The habits of the herring have been briefly mentioned under the heading of Food. As 

 there stated, they seem to seek deep water during the winter, although occasional catches are 

 made at that season; but in early spring they approach the shores, so that in Passamaquoddy 

 Bay, where their appearance has been carefully studied, the fish weirs are tended regularly 

 from the first of April to the end of the year, the times when whales are most often observed. 

 The greatest abundance of herring is in July and August which closely corresponds with the 

 time when the whales are most numerous. At this time great shoals of young herring, the 

 progeny of the previous autumnal spawning, appear on the New England coast, and remain 

 until the winter, at intervals coming in enormous quantities. The larger fish are spawning 

 in fall from about the last of September through October and approach the shores for that 

 purpose. After October they disappear more or less, though usually scattered schools may be 

 found in favorable localities during December. Their appearance during the winter months 

 seems to be irregular and uncertain, but occasionally large numbers do come, and with them 

 the whales. Thus of the two January records given, the first relates to a 1901 report that 

 "whales and herring have appeared off Provincetown. The fishermen have caught many of 

 the latter." The second is of one killed near Eastport, Maine, that had a large herring entrapped 

 in the baleen, showing that it had been in pursuit of those fish. Of the three February records, 

 two relate to whales washed ashore dead, while the other is of a school that appeared in Prov- 

 incetown Bay, about the first of that month, 1905, and were said to be pursuing the large her- 

 ring then in those waters. Of the March records where details are given, the same is true. 

 Thus in 1880, large numbers came into Provincetown Bay early in March, in pursuit of 



