HUMP-BACKED WHALE. 393 



members of this group have been separated by recent 

 writers into an immense number of subdivisions, but 

 they appear to be referable to two well-marked genera, 

 both of which are represented in our fauna. 



Of these the first, Megaptera, includes the Whales 

 known to sailors as " Hump-backs " ; they have a some- 

 what bulky body, a broad head, and a very low and 

 obtuse dorsal fin. The flippers are of extraordinary size, 

 equalling a fourth or even a third of the whole length 

 of the animal, and the second and third digits have no 

 less than eight joints in each. 



The Hump-backed Whale was not known to Linnaeus, 

 but appears to be the Balcena boops of Fabricius. Although 

 well known to whalers as the " Bermuda Whale " and 

 " Hump-back," and to the Greenlanders as the Kcporkak, 

 it was not properly characterized until 18^9, when 

 Rudolphi figured and described it as Balcena longimana, 

 from an example cast ashore at the mouth of the Elbe. 

 Since then much has been done in clearing up its history, 

 thanks principally to the labours of Holboll and of 

 Eschricht. 



The "Keporkak" is found, according to these ob- 

 servers, between the degrees of 62 and 66 north latitude 

 in summer, but not one is to be seen off the Greenland 

 coasts in winter. From March till May they are met 

 with as far south as Bermuda, and the females are then 

 accompanied by their young. Sometimes it wanders into 

 the German Ocean, and even penetrates into the Baltic ; 

 Herr S. Hallas has seen it on the coast of Iceland, and 

 Herr G. O. Sars among the LofToden Isles, and Eschricht 

 states that one was taken in Norway, near Stavanger, in 

 April, 1846. 



On our own shores, it may sometimes have been con- 

 fused with the true Rorquals, but the occurrence of two 



3 K 



