WHALES AND DOLPHINS 323 



wnaies and As reference already has been made to the southern black whale, 



Dolphins. or southern right-whale (Balcena atistralis), both in the preceding 

 chapter and in the one on the fauna of the Atlantic, it will suffice to add that 

 an allied species or race, B. japonica, inhabits the North Pacific. Rorquals 

 are represented in the Indian Ocean by a larger and a smaller kind which 

 have been respectively named Balcenoptera indica and B. edeni ; but it is very 

 doubtful whether they are anything more than local races of two of the large 

 European species. The lesser rorqual (B. rostrata, or B. acuti-rostrata), the smallest 

 representative of the group, likewise appears to have an eastern representative. 

 In its typical European form this whale differs from all its relatives by the presence 

 of a broad white band round each flipper ; but as most of its foreign representatives 

 are known only by the skeleton, there may be local variation in the matter of 

 colouring. Evidence in regard to the wide range of this species is furnished by a 

 skeleton from Borneo, received a few years ago at the British Museum, which 

 agrees in all respects with European examples. From the southern part of the 

 opposite hemisphere, namely, the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, rorquals of this 

 species have been described under the name of B. rostrata bonariensis. From 

 South America the species probably extends to New Zealand, where it is represented 

 by B. r. huttoni. In the North Pacific we find a race described years ago by 

 Scammon under the name of B. r. davidsoni. In most, if not all, cases the above- 

 mentioned foreign representatives of the species are known only by the skeleton, 

 but a fin-whale from some part of the Atlantic has been named B. r. racovitsai, 

 and is stated to be characterised by the presence of a brilliant white streak on the 

 upper jaw in addition to the band round the flipper. This whale is likewise stated 

 to differ from the typical rostrata by feeding on minute invertebrates and diatoms 

 (' plankton ') instead of on fish. Nevertheless, it is regarded as nothing more than 

 a race of the ordinary species. 



The humpbacked whale (Megaptera boojos or M. nodosa) is, as mentioned in 

 the preceding chapter, allied to the rorquals, but distinguished by the excessive 

 length of the flippers, which have scalloped margins, and are generally pure 

 glistening white, forming a marked contrast to the black of the upper-parts. In 

 length the flippers are nearly equal to one-fourth that of the head and body. The 

 chin and throat are grooved, forming a dilatable pouch, as in rorquals, and the 

 back-fin is low, and the whole shape relatively short and thick. The usual length 

 attained by humpbacks ranges between forty-five and fifty feet ; the female being 

 superior in size to the male. The whalebone is comparatively short, and deep black 

 in colour. Humpbacks, which are widely distributed in the Atlantic and Pacific 

 Oceans, and also met with in the Indian Ocean, are remarkable for their sportive 

 habits, frequently throwing themselves clear of the waves, and sometimes lying on 

 one side just below the surface, with one flipper rising vertically out of the water. 

 On the African side of the Indian Ocean it was for some years observed that 

 between May and August large numbers of humpbacked whales passed between 

 Natal and the Delagoa Bay coast, and in May 1908 the Norwegians obtained 

 permission to establish a whaling-station on the Bluff side of the channel, where be- 

 tween July and the early part of September no less than one hundred and two hump- 

 backs and two hundred rorquals were taken. This, however, by no means exhausted 



