HUMPBACK WHALE. 293 



white, with a black mark extending along the axis from the root about half way to the tip, 

 but not wide enough to reach the margins of the fin"; the lower surface of the pectorals was 

 similarly colored and the posterior margin was irregularly marked with black. Each lobe 

 of the flukes below had a large central white area, surrounded by a broad black border. The 

 lower side of the body is usually black, more or less marbled with white on the throat and 

 breast. Furrows on the belly light purplish flesh color. 



Variations from this pattern are due to the greater or less amount of white, and this 

 generally on the lower surfaces. The dorsal fin may be irregularly spotted or blotched with 

 white or its front or hind margins may be white. The throat and breast may be almost wholly 

 black to almost all white, varying in every individual, but the belly is usually black, sometimes 

 with white spots, and the margins of the jaws are commonly black. The pectorals are always 

 white below, apparently, but above there is usually a basal black area which may l)e confined 

 to a narrow central tongue or may reach to the anterior margin or even quite across the base, 

 and encroach a trifle on the lower side in front. Again the black may extend as a narrow 

 edging along the hinder margin of the pectorals. 



Rawitz (1900) advances some evidence for supposing that the white breast is more often 

 present in adult animals, and that the immature specimens are more often black below; Cap- 

 tain David Gray, an experienced whaler, also informed Struthers (1889, p. 16, foot note) that in 

 the Bowhead the amount of white below increases with age. 



Hair. — Rawitz (1900, p. 73) found one or two short bristles on each of the dermal tubercles 

 of the lower lip, and at the symphysis a single bristle at the summit of the numerous and irregu- 

 lar tubercles at this point. A single whitish bristle projects from each of the double row of 

 tubercles on either side of the upper jaw. Other hairs are found between these knobs, growing 

 from wrinkles of the skin. Rarely these bristles are yellowish. The tubercles probably corre- 

 spond to the slight swellings from which the hairs project in the Fin Whales, but in the latter, 

 the number is less and the arrangement seems sUghtly more definite. Where two hairs grow 

 from a single knob, it seems to be a case of fusion of two tubercles, morphologically distinct. 



Baleen. — The general appearance of the whalebone is dark brown, with coarse bristles 

 of a similar color. True describes it as grayish black, the bristles along the exterior the same, 

 but those towards the middle of the mouth paler. These bristles are about four to six inches 

 long and form a matted mass. Often the anteriormost plates are white in part, iiut this appear- 

 ance may be confined to those of one side only. The baleen plates number about four hundred 

 on each side, and the longest of these scarcely exceed two feet. True found the longest to be 

 22 inches in a Newfoundland whale of 45 feet. 



External Measurements. — In comparison with the larger Fin Whales, the Humpback is 

 much shorter. Adults of both sexes probably seldom exceed fifty feet over all. True found 

 47 feet the longest of those he measured at Newfoundland, and although some of the Norwegian 

 specimens are said to have been larger, he points out that these measurements may be "over 



