158 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE.—1912. 
Tur Sprcirs Caprurrp av BruMULLET. 
The total catch at this station during the 1911 season consisted of 
63 individuals. Before my arriyal 12 had been caught, so 
that I had the opportunity of examining 51 specimens. ach 
of these was examined to a greater or less extent. It was rather 
unfortunate that the whole of these 51 individuals was made up 
of two species only, viz., Balenoptera musculus (L.),*! the common 
‘Finner,’ and Balenoplera sibbalditi (Gray),?* the Blue whale. 
There were 4 Blue whales, and the rest were common ‘ Finners.’ Of 
the dozen which had been captured in the earlier part of the season, 
2 were Sejhvals (Balenoptera borealis, Lesson),** both of which were 
caught in the first half of May. There were also 2 Sperm whales 
(Physeter macrocephalus, L.)** both captured on May 20. The rest 
consisted of common ‘Finners.’ It will be noticed that no Right 
whales (Balena biscayensis, Gray) °° were taken in the 1911 season. 
Also no Humpbacks (Megaptera longimana, Rud.)*?° were taken, 
though several were seen during the season. The first ‘ Finner ’ was 
captured on May 18, and this species was continually taken all through 
the season up to the end of September. The first Blue whale was 
taken on May 30, and the last on August 11. 
The Right whales and Sejhvals are said to appear only during the 
earlier part of the season—in May and perhaps the early part of June. 
It must be noted that no Sejhvals were taken after the arrival of 
the Blue whales. This is said always to be the case, the latter species 
following the former. Other species 7’ are seen off the coast of Ireland, 
but are too small to be worth chasing by the whalers. 
V. MEASUREMENTS. 
A definite and, whenever possible, complete set of measurements 
was taken of every whale examined. It was found impracticable to 
obtain the distance between the tips of the tail-flukes as intended, as 
most of the flukes were cut off directly the whale was captured, to 
reduce the resistance when towing into the station. Corresponding 
measurements were taken as nearly as possible in exactly the same 
way, but the weight of the animal distorts the shape of the body when 
on the flensing-slip, so that exact correspondence could not always 
be obtained in some measurements. All the measurements are given 
in English feet and inches. ‘Where these have been obtained from 
Norwegian measurements, one Norwegian foot was taken as equiva- 
lent to 123 English inches. The measurements have also been reduced 
to percentages of the total length. This method was adopted by True, 
21 Also called 2B. physalus (Fabricius), B. rorqual (Lacepéde), Physalus anti- 
quorum (Gray). 
*2 Syn. B. latirostris (Flower). 
22 Syn. B. rostrata (Rud.); B. laticeps (Gray). 
24 Syn. P. catodon (Fabricius), P. gibbosus (Schreber), P. trumpo (Gerard), 
and others. 
*5 Syn. B. australis (Desmoulins), B. eubalena (Flower), and many others. 
26 Syn. Baleena hoops (Fabricius), &c., &e. 
27 B.g., Balenoptera rostrata (Gray). 
