304 ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



length." This must be very unusual, for as the same author states, the small schizopod crus- 

 taceans are all that are usually found in stomachs of this whale. Millais (1906, p. 181) is 

 authority for the statement that it feeds also on squid. A curious case is mentioned by John- 

 ston,^ of a dead Humpback, thrown up on the shore near Berwick, England, in September, 1829. 

 ' ' On opening the stomach six cormorants were found in it, and another in the throat, so that 

 it was presumed this Whale had been choaked in the attempt to swallow the bird." 



Breeding Habits. 



Practically nothing is known of the breeding habits of the Hmnpback on the New England 

 coast. They are often seen in pairs, however, during the sunmier months, not only on our 

 coasts but in more northern seas as well. Guldberg found them in pairs off the Norwegian coast 

 in April and May, and Rawitz (1900) made a similar observation in mid-July. Mr. Owen 

 Bryant saw numbers of them during a cruise from the Isles of Shoals to Nova Scotia, Sep- 

 tember 4-6, 1903, most of which were in pairs. It is supposed that copulation takes place 

 during early summer and that pregnancy lasts about a year. The young are probably 

 born in the spring therefore, but there is practically no exact information on this subject 

 (Guldberg, 1887). 



A single young one is produced at a birth as a rule, though twins are known in rare cases. 

 Verrill (1902) mentions young Humpbacks 15 or 20 feet long in the Bermudan waters in Feb- 

 ruary, and such were no doubt newly born. Goodall (1913) writing of the Humpback of the 

 East African coast, tells of one killed in the act of parturition, whose calf measured sixteen feet 

 in length and weighed two tons. The length of the mother is not given but assuming it to have 

 been in the neighborhood of 48 feet, the length of the calf must have been a third that of its 

 mother. 



The affection of the mother for her young one is very strong. As with the Right Whale, 

 she will not leave it if in danger, and the whalemen take advantage of this by kilUng first the 

 young one, then attacking the devoted mother, who refuses to be driven off. 



It is supposed that the young Humpbacks are born in the warmer waters to the south of 

 our coasts. Mr. J. S. Wildman who has for some years carried on a fishery for this species 

 in the Grenadines (B. W. I.), tells me that during the month of March it is common to see in 

 those waters young cah'es accompanying a bull and cow Humpback. They seem to be at that 

 time in passage and disappear by May. Possibly they follow the Gulf Stream northwards. 

 Verrill's statement above quoted indicates that young are brought forth also in the seas about 

 the Bermudas, though he adds (p. 274) that most of the young ones seen in those waters in 

 spring are from twenty to thirty feet long, and so may very probably have been immature 



' Trans. Xat. Hist. Soc. Northumberland, Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1831, vol. 1, p. 7. 



