340 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 65 



under and around the ships, singly or in groups of 15 or 20, as if 

 enjoying a spirited race with the ship dashing along under press of 

 sail. Their uncertain movements and great speed render them diffi- 

 cult of capture. 



Breeding habits. There is little on record of the breeding habits 

 of this species except the observance of the single young accompany- 

 ing its mother, and in one case Andrews (1909 [ p. $25} notes that a 

 calf refused to leave its mother after she was killed but followed the 

 boat until it also was killed. 



Food habits. Scammon says their food is of the same nature as of 

 other rorquals and the quantity of codfish found in them is truly 

 enormous. Andrews (1909, p. $25) reports the stomachs of Van- 

 couver and Alaska animals containing only Euphausia (minute 

 crustaceans) with the exception of one individual, taken August 18, 

 which contained in addition about 4 barrels of herring. 



Economic status. The yield of oil from one of these whales is 

 given by Scammon as about 75 barrels and the baleen is only about 

 28 inches long. Their relatively low commercial value, and the diffi- 

 culty of capturing these swift whales, as well as their scattered dis- 

 tribution, may save some of them for future generations. 



BALABNOPTERA BOREALIS LESSON 

 POLLACK WHALE; SEI WHALE; SARDINE WHALE; RUDOLPHI'S RORQUAL 



Balaenoptera "borealis Lesson, Hist. Nat. Gen. et Partie. Mamni. et Oiseau, 



Cetaces, p. 342, 1828. 

 Balaenoptera velifera- borealis Dall, Scammon's Marine Mammals, p. 303, 1874. 



Type locality. Gromitz, Lubeck Bay, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. 



General characters. Differing from the common finback according to Captain 

 Scammon, by a larger and higher dorsal fin. Whalebone dark with fine curly 

 white hairs over inner surface. Body dark blue or brownish above, generally 

 spotted ; tail flukes usually not white below, and little white on belly. 



Measurements. Total length recorded up to 52 feet. 



Distribution: Once common along our northwest coast. Dall 

 who observed many of them in the summer of 1872 in the Shumagi 

 Islands, Alaska, says those of Oregon seem to have a dorsal inter- 

 mediate in size between the northern and small-finned southern forms. 

 These whales are regularly taken off the coast of Vancouver Island, 

 and there is one record for Monterey Bay, Calif. (St&rks,1922,p-31). 

 It seems probable that they still reach to the coast of Oregon, even 

 if not in the typical form. 



BALAENOPTERA DAVIDSONI SCAMMON 

 LITTLE PIKED WHALE ; SHARP-HEADED FINNER WHALE ; LESSER ROBQUAL 



Balaenoptera davidsoni Scammon. On a new species of Balaenoptera. Calif. 

 Acad. Sci. Proc. 4: 269-270, 1873. Advance publication October 4, 1872. 



Type skull. Collected at Admiralty Inlet, Washington Territory, October 

 1870, by C. M. Scammon, who measured and wrote a description of the whale 

 while it was being cut up by the Indians on the beach of Port Townsend Bay. 



General characters. Smallest species of the whalebone whales known on 

 the Pacific coast, 30 to 33 feet in length ; the type, a 27-foot female containing 

 a 5 1 /2 -foot foetus, was slender in form with pointed head, well-developed and 

 curved dorsal fin, and small pointed pectoral fins or flippers ; baleen pure white, 

 the longest laminae only 10 inches long; throat and belly marked by 70 longi- 

 tudinal folds or ridges. Color, upper parts dull black, lower parts, including 

 lower surface of flukes and pectorals, white. 



iy 



