The Zoologist— April, 1873. 3461 



Notes on the Right and Sperm Whales. 

 By Prof. N. S. Shaler. 



' [In connection with Dr. Gray's papers on tlie Whales and Dolphins in- 

 habiting or visiting the seas surrounding the British Islands, the following 

 notes by Professor N. S. Shaler, which have just appeared in the ' American 

 Naturalist ' (vol. vii. p. 1), appear to me of such great interest that I cannot 

 hesitate to reprint them. With a few exceptions, and those written by sea 

 captains, and not by naturalists, we seem to have no knowledge whatever of 

 the whale as a living animal. We have plenty of descriptions and pictures 

 of the halves of ships descending from the skies into the ocean and men 

 tumbling out of them ; and the artists have kindly informed us that these 

 are " boats attacking whales"; yet I imagine that no thirst for sensational 

 excitement can accept these pictures as truthful representations of events 

 that take place. I acknowledge therefore, most willingly, that I feel myself 

 imder great obligation to Professor Shaler, who thus places us face to face 

 with an eye-witness of scenes quite as marvellous as those fictions which 

 astonished our childhood. — E. Newman.'] 



The following notes on the habits of the right whale were taken 

 down in a conversation with Captain John Pease of Edgartown, 

 an old whaler, whose powers of observation as well as of accurate 

 and clear statement I have rarely known equalled. As far as 

 possible these statements have been collated with those of other 

 experienced whalers. 



All of the south latitude right whales are without calves up to 

 July 1st; the females are found in the bays about this time. 

 The calves all come at once, it being but two or three days 

 between the bearing of the first and last calves. None are found 

 with the herd up to the 1st of July, and every female has her calf 

 by the 3rd or 4th of the month. 



The right and humpback whales are very fond of their young, 

 taking no care of themselves in their efforts to save it ; the sperm 

 whales, on the other hand, are quite without affection, as far as can 

 be determined by their behaviour. 



Sperm whales have leaders of the herd, which they follow with a 

 certain obstinacy ; these leaders seem to give the alarm to the 

 others. No such subordination can be observed among right 

 whales. Sperm whales, as is well known, have the males very 

 much larger than the females, while the reverse is the case among 

 the right whales. This is interesting in connection with the fact 

 that the male sperm whales struggle furiously together, while the 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. VIII. R 



