HUMPBACK WHALE. 305 



animals in passage, born in more southern waters. Tiie young certainly accompany the 

 mother for a considerable period, until they are upwards of thirty feet in length and probably, 

 as the whalemen suppose, are 'yearlings,' a year or more old. 



Longevity. 



Nothing is known as to the age to wliich this whale may live. At least twenty years 

 is probably not excessive, if we may credit Professor Verrill's (1902) account of a Humpback 

 he saw with others in the Bay of Fundy about 1859. This particular specimen had a large 

 barnacle so situated at the edge of its blowholes as to produce a characteristic whistling sound 

 as the whale spouted. According to local fishermen the whale had been known by this mark 

 for upwards of twenty summers. Assuming the truth of the observation, it implies a fairly 

 long term of life for the barnacle, as well as a regularity of habit for the whale to return thus 

 annually to the same waters. 



Occurrence in New England Waters. 



Although the Humpback sometimes comes very close inshore, it is very rarely indeed that 

 one becomes stranded. Baird (Rept. U. S. Coram. Fish and Fisheries for 1879, 1882, p. xx) 

 reports a 30-foot specimen that stranded in Provincetown Bay, and was secured for the U. S. 

 National Museum. This is the only such occurrence known to me in New England, except 

 the ancient report of one that was stranded in Nantucket Harbor in 1608, and killed by the 

 Indians. Not uncommonly they will enter harbors or even go a short distance up the mouths 

 of the large rivers. Thus there are records of Humpbacks entering the harbor at Nantucket, 

 and of another that made its way up the Piscataqua River beyond the Portsmouth Bridge, 

 N. H., nearly three miles from the sea. Again one was captured in Newport Harbor, and 

 others are reported close inshore as in case of one seen near the rocky coast of Marblehead by 

 Mr. H. L. Shurtleff in 1903. Two whales, probably Humpbacks, appeared in Portland Harbor, 

 Maine, in 1908. 



Usually, however, they keep well off shore, and most of the records seem to be of schools 

 or small companies seen about Nantucket Shoals, on the Georges Banks, or off Province- 

 town and the outer parts of Massachusetts Bay. 



In the following pages are gathered together such records as I have been able to find, 

 published or unpublished, of the occurrence of the Humpback Whale in New England waters. 

 Their comparatively meager number is unquestionably due, not to the scarcity of the species 

 off our coasts, but to the few definite observations available, and the relatively small pro- 

 portion of whales that are killed or stranded and reported. Fishermen off shore occasionally 

 meet with the species and it is undoubtedly of much more regular occurrence than the few 



