bryde's whale. 1087 



round in eii-cles very quickly and gets the line wound round it, 

 and is on the whole ditiicult to manage. Large females are less 

 difficult to shoot than the others, as they are not so quick in 

 their movements. 



Gravid females do not seem to be followed by their males as is 

 the case with the humpback whale. For instance, two females 

 captured in Saldanha Bay, March 12, 1913, and with fojtuses 

 measuring 0"935 and 3'78 metres, were swimming about quite 

 alone. )Some males captured at this time were also solitary. 



They axe gravid at very difterent times, and females were found 

 with foetuses of diflerent sizes both in Saldanha Bay and Durban, 

 at the same time as others were followed by young with a length 

 of about 6-7 metres. 



It may be mentioned as a curious fact that almost all the 

 "sei "-whales captured in Saldanha Bay from March 5-13, 1913, 

 went southwards when the whaling steamei'S began to hunt 

 them. 



The flesh of B. brydei contains less oil than does that of other 

 species of its genus, with the exception perhaps of B. horealis. 

 When fresh and served like beef -steak it tastes quite good, as I 

 had an opportunity of proving when at Saldanha Bay. 



The Foetus. 



About an equal number of each sex of B. brydei seem to be 

 caught. Many of the females were gravid, and, as mentioned 

 above, with fostuses of very different sizes : — e. g., in two gravid 

 females examined by me in Saldanha Bay, March 12, 1913, 

 the foetuses had a length of 0-935 and 3-78 metres (PI. CXIII. 

 figs. 12, 13). The mamma3 in both these specimens were very 

 well developed, and, -when they were dragged out of the watei-, 

 about a half-gallon of mucus ran out of their genital openings, 

 as has sometimes been observed shortly after the birth of the 

 young in other whales. The largest foetus was full-grown, and 

 fell out when the men began to remove the stratum of fat from 

 the whale. 



The following table shows some measurements of the two 

 foetuses. 



In the larger foetus the penis was placed in a furrow which 

 ran backwards from the umbilicus for about 12 cm. The 

 baleen had just appeared and was thick and soft, with a length 

 of about 3 cm. The bristles had an aveiage length of 6- 

 8 mm. and were generally only to be seen at the base of the 

 baleen. The antei'ior and jDostei'ior baleen only appeared as 

 small ridges. The doi'sal fin was bent down to the back on the 

 left side, both the apex and the tip being curved to an unusual 

 extent, and the hinder margin deeply concave. The tail-flukes 

 were strongly bent together towards the median line of the body. 

 The colour above was a uniform bluish black, and whitish grey 



72* 



