Family BAL^NOPTERIDiE. 

 Genus Megaptera. 



THE HUMPBACKED WHALE. 



Megaptera boops, Fabric! us. 

 Plate 42. 



The Humpbacked Whale, the only representative of its genus, is 

 characterised by its stout massive body, low dorsal fin, and extraordinary 

 length of the usually glistering white flippers. In form the latter are 

 narrow, slightly curved, and deeply indented along the outer and part 

 of their inner margins. The throat and chest are grooved with long 

 furrows to allow the necessary expansion of these parts, when the mouth 

 is filled with water containing the small fishes and crustaceans on which 

 the animal lives. 



In this species these furrows are set farther apart and are less 

 numerous than in the Rorquals. The baleen is short and black in 

 colour. 



About the region of the snout and lower lips are some small knobs 

 or tubercles. In the skeleton the seven vertebrae of the neck are fi-ee, 

 and not fused together as in the Right Whales. 



The upper parts of the Humpbacked Whale are black in colour, but 

 the under surface varies considerably in difi^erent specimens, sometimes 

 this is white, sometimes black, or often a combination of both colours. 



There is also a good deal of variation in the colour of the outer side 

 of the flippers, which may be pure white, white varied with irregular 



61 



