14 CETACEANS. 



sheltered estuaries lying under a tropical sun, as if to warm its offspring into 

 activity and promote its comfort, until grown to the size nature demands for its 

 first northern visit. When the parent animals are attacked, they show a power 

 of resistance and tenacity of life that distinguish them from all other Cetaceans. 

 This species has of late years become very rare, and is now in considerable danger 

 of extermination. 



THE HUMPBACK WHALE. 



Genus Megaptera. 







The humpback whale (Megaptera hoops) belongs to the group characterised 

 by the presence of a number of longitudinal flutings in the skin of the throat, and 

 of a fin on the back. It is distinguished from the finners (described below), by the 

 comparatively large size of the head, the short and deep body, the small size of the 

 fin on the back, and the enormous length of the flippers. The flukes are relatively 

 large, and the flippers are characterised by their scalloped margins. As in the grey 

 whale and finners, the vertebrae of the neck are relatively longer than in the right- 

 whales, and remain perfectly separate from one another throughout life. The whale- 

 bone, which is of a deep black colour, is short and broad, and of a coarse and but 

 slightly elastic structure. In length the humpback varies from 45 to 50 feet ; the 

 flippers measuring from 10 to 14 feet in length. The general colour of the body is 

 black above, but often more or less marbled with white below, while the flippers 

 may be either entirely white, or black above and speckled with white below. The 

 skeleton of the flippers has four digits, with a great number of joints. 



The name humpback, according to Captain Scammon, is derived from the 

 prominence on the back which carries the fin, but there appears to be considerable 

 individual variation in regard to the degree of its development. Captain Scammon, 

 from whose figures our plate is taken, makes this prominence at least as high as 

 any other part of the back, while in the position assumed by the suckling female 

 in the lower half of the plate it is the highest point of all. In a figure given by 

 Sir W. H. Flower the whole back is made more arched, with the highest point only 

 a short distance behind the base of the flippers ; possibly, however, there may be 

 individual differences in this respect. It may be mentioned here that when a whale 

 leaps out of the water, as in the topmost figure of our plate, it is said to " breach " ; 

 when a fin is shown out of the water, as in the two right upper figures, the action is 

 termed " finning " ; while, when the flukes alone are exposed, as on the left side of 

 the plate, it is called " lob-tailing." 



Humpbacks are found in nearly all seas, and at present it appears 

 impossible to distinguish more than a single species, although some 

 writers maintain that the one inhabiting the Persian Gulf is distinct from the 

 common form. Although they are said to be not uncommon off the eastern coast 

 of Scotland during the summer, but few examples have been taken in the British 

 Seas. One was, however, captured at Newcastle in 1839, a second at the mouth 

 of the Dee in 1863, a third in Wick Bay, Caithness, in 1871, and a fourth in the 

 Tay during the winter of 1883-84. 



