Distribufion of Whales and DolpJnns. 103 



of bringing forth their young, and are generally accompanied 

 by the calf of the preceding year, called a "scrag," which does 

 not leave its mother till it attains its full size. The Black 

 Whale is truly a migratory animal ; it arrives in Cook's 

 Straits from the northward at the beginning of May, then 

 passes along the coast of the northern island to Entry Island, 

 then sweeping into Cloudy Bay ; and then at the end of October 

 they go to the eastward or return to the northward ; and many 

 whales are to be found in the "whaling-ground" which 

 extends from Chatham Island to the eastward of the north- 

 ern island of New Zealand and thence to Norfolk Island; 

 and the whalers say tliis district is a shoal. Besides this 

 migration, which rather ouglit to be called a circumnavigation 

 of a limited district, there exists a daily one ; the whales ap- 

 proach the shores and bays with the flood tide and quit them 

 with the ebb ; they are often seen in places where the depth 

 of water does not exceed their own breadth (Dieffenbach's 

 Travels in New Zealand, vol. i. pp. 44-47). The whalers 

 thought they were the same species that were found at the Cape 

 of Good Hope, which are known to have similar habits, as 

 also have the Black Whales at Van Diemen's Land ; but I 

 now know, from the examination of the skeletons, that there 

 are two Black Whales in New Zealand, both of which are 

 quite different from the two Black Whales that inhabit the Cape 

 of Good Hope. 



Mr. E. Hartt, in his ' Physical Geography of Brazil,' ob- 

 serves : — " The first whales [Physalm hrasiUensis, Gray) appear 

 in the Abrolho waters at about the end of May, and they stay 

 till October. The females often bring their young calves with 

 them, and appear to seek the shelter of the rocks. The fishery 

 begins at Bahia, according to Castelnau, at about the 13th of 

 June, and lasts till the 21st of September ; at Caravellas I was 

 assured the whales always appeared later than at Bahia." 



Further south, the Finners in passing the Rio de la Plata 

 ascend that river ; and Professor Burmeister has described from 

 the skeletons of the whales in the museum of Buenos Ayres, 

 obtained near that city, no less than three distinct species of 

 Physalus (see Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1872, x. p. 413). 



Wherever there are whale-fisheries (as in Walvisch Bay 

 near the Cape, Cook's Straits at New Zealand, and Caravellas, 

 and especially Bahia) the bones of the whales killed form large 

 banks, as many as 500 to 1000 whales or more on the same 

 spot (indeed in Walvisch Bay the bank is said to be several 

 miles in length), showing great destruction of these animals in 

 these seas as well as in the northern ones. 



In the 'Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist.' 1870, vi. pj). 391-394, ia 



