240 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



whom I conversed, to have been one of a school of "Finbacks" that had been seen offshore 

 for several days together, in August. These they thought were "mostly small whales." At 

 about the same time another specimen was said to have come ashore near the Chatham 

 Life Saving Station, but this I was unable to confirm. Specimens of the whalebone are 

 preserved in the Museum of the Society and in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 and I am indebted to Mr. J. Henry Blake for a photograph of the whale at the Old Harbor 

 Station. This picture (Plate 13, fig. 1), taken by a casual visitor, is here reproduced. 

 Though taken 'head on,' it indicates the relatively short body as compared with a Common 

 Finback, and shows the high dorsal fin and pointed tapering snout. The fact that a school 

 of "small" Finback Whales had been seen offshore previous to the stranding of the one (or 

 possibly two) individuals, coupled with the known gregarious habits of this species, raise a 

 presumption that there may have been a small school of Pollack Whales off the Cape Cod 

 shores in August, 1910. It is also evident that schools of Finbacks reported from time to 

 time on the coast may contain individuals of the present species, which, however, would be 

 difficult of identification at sea. 



Habits. 



Previous to the last few years our knowledge of the habits of this whale was chiefly con- 

 fined to the paper by Collett in 1886. 



CoUett was told by the whalers that when not feeding, the Pollack Whales swim swiftly 

 and do not appear to blow so often as the larger species, but spout only once or twice when 

 coming to the surface. When feeding in the plankton currents they swim slowly with the upper 

 part of the head and back fin out of water. 



Recent observations on the Irish coast (Lillie, 1910) indicate the presence there of this whale 

 in late May and early June, after which none was taken by the whalers. In Fimnark, however, 

 they were found as early as May 14 and as late as September 8, though in a course of j^ears 

 the time varied more or less. Usually they did not appear in the Finmark waters till middle or 

 late June, and were most common in the months of July and August. Statistics of the Fin- 

 mark whahng stations, as compiled by Rawitz (1900, p. 104) show that B. borealis is the com- 

 monest of all the whales taken on that coast, which may be due in part as that author supposes, 

 to the fact that it frequents coastal waters rather than the high seas, and often approaches 

 very close to the land. Rawitz beheves that it does not appear in the more northern waters 

 until they have attained a summer temperature of 9° C, but it may be that it is the effect of 

 temperature on the food of the whale that regulates its appearance, and that the migratory 

 movements which seem to be indicated are wanderings northward in pursuit of food. 



Millais credits it with an abiUty to swim as fast as twenty-five knots an hour, but this 

 must be received with caution. It seems to be somewhat gregarious, and usually goes in schools 



