HUMPBACK WHALE. 303 



was heard which the whalers at once recognized as made by the anunal. This author Avrites 

 that it was clearly audible on placing his ear against the planking of the boat as "a distinct 

 note like the low tone of a 'cello." It ceased abruptly as the whale broke water. A some- 

 what similar sound is said to be produced by the White Porpoise (Delpliinapterus). There 

 seems little likelihood that the sound is a conscious vocal utterance, but may be produced 

 in\'oluntarily through the effort of retaining the breath. Pulsations or vibrations thus caused, 

 might be communicated in some way to the boat as a resonator. 



Accompanying Vessels. — Moseley (1879) in his Notes by a Naturalist on the Challenger, 

 speaks of a Humpback Whale that followed the vessel for several days in the South Pacific. 

 Rear- Admiral John Schouler, U. S. N., informs me of a similar instance, where a large whale 

 of unknown species accompanied his vessel from St. Paul's Island to the Brazilian coast, and 

 was daily seen in constant attendance off the quarter or abeam. In Hakluyt's Voyages is 

 a relation by Richard Fisher of the voyage of the ship Marigold to Cape Breton in which a whale, 

 perhaps a Humpback or a Finback, attached itself to the explorers' vessel and kept it company 

 for several days off southern Newfoundland. This incident is told in the quaint language 

 of the time as follows. "One thing very strange hapened in tliis voyage: to witte, that a 

 mightie great whale followed om* shippe by the space of many dayes as we passed by Cape 

 Razo [Cape Race, Newfoundland], which by no meanes wee could chase from our ship, untill 

 one of our men fell overboard and was drowned, after which time shee immediately forsooke 

 us, and never afterward appeared unto us." ^ Moseley believes that when porpoises or whales 

 accompany a ship in this manner, they "think they are attending a larger whale." 



Food. 



So far as known, the Humpback feeds chiefly on the pelagic crustaceans, Thysanoessa 

 inermis and probably Meganyctiplianes, which it engulfs in quantities as it swims about in 

 the plankton currents. According to Rawitz, it often turns more or less completely on its 

 back when it closes its mouth in feeding on these small shrimp-like animals, but this is not 

 always the case. It is probable that small fish form a part of the diet but exact observations 

 are meager on this point. Guldberg (1887) states that on the Norwegian coasts they follow 

 the great schools of capelin (Mallotus) that come inshore to spawn, and the same fish is eaten 

 in the Newfoundland and Labrador waters where it abounds in summer. There seems to be 

 no evidence that the Humpback eats herrings on our coast. Andrews (1909, p. 221) records 

 of the Pacific Humpback (M. versabilis) that one killed in Alaskan waters contained "a great 

 quantity of codfish (probably Gadus macrocephalus) , the largest being about sixteen inches in 



'■ Hakluyt, R. The principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the Enghsh nation. Everyman's 

 Library editou, vol. 6, p. 96. 



