APPENDIX 



gray, but somewhat lighter on the anterior half of the under 

 side. The flukes above are dark gray like the back, and 

 below are light gray in the ventral portion, becoming darker 

 on the edges. The whalebone is bluish-black with white 

 bristles. 



The rostrum of the skull is narrow and triangular with 

 straight sides as in the Finback. The nasal bones are 

 oblong and truncated anteriorly. The first rib is usually 

 bifurcated. Vertebral formula: cervicals 7, dorsals 14 (-13), 

 lumbars 13 (-14), caudals 22 (-23). Total, 56-57. Habitat: 

 cosmopolitan. 



HUMPBACK 

 Megaptera nodosa (Bonn.) 



Form massive and ungraceful. Head flat and blunt with 

 dermal tubercles* along the sides and middle. Ventral folds 

 few and broad. Average total length, 45 feet; maximum 

 length, 55 feet. The pectoral fins are more than one-fourth 

 the entire length with several prominent bunches along the 

 anterior edge. The dorsal fin is low, thick and somewhat 

 falcate, and the flukes are broad with crenate posterior 

 edges. 



The color is black with white markings. The head, back 

 and sides are black and the throat and breast to about oppo- 

 site the pectoral fins are splashed and streaked with white 

 in varying degrees. On the lower lips, sides of the jaw and 

 about the chin, throat and breast are spots, circles and 

 crescents of white; these are probably the scars left by 

 barnacles and other parasites. Between the flippers in the 

 middle of the breast there is usually an irregular transverse 

 patch of white, 10 or 12 inches in diameter. 



The flippers are black above with many white spots and 

 circles, and white below except for a broad patch of black 

 at the base. The flukes are normally black above with white 

 spots along the edges; below they are white, spotted and 

 circled with black, except in the basal third, where there 



