14 
CETACEANS. 
sheltered estuaries lying under a tropical sun, as if to warm its offspring into 
activity and promote its comfort, until grown to the size nature demands for its 
first northern visit. When the parent animals are attacked, they show a power 
of resistance and tenacity of life that distinguish them from all other Cetaceans. 
This species has of late years become very rare, and is now in considerable danger 
of extermination. 
The Humpback Whale. 
Genus Megaptera. 
The humpback whale (Megaptera hoops ) belongs to the group characterised 
by the presence of a number of longitudinal flutings in the skin of the throat, and 
of a fin on the back. It is distinguished from the tinners (described below), by the 
comparatively large size of the head, the short and deep body, the small size of the 
fin on the back, and the enormous length of the flippers. The flukes are relatively 
large, and the flippers are characterised by their scalloped margins. As in the grey 
whale and tinners, the vertebrae of the neck are relatively longer than in the right- 
whales, and remain perfectly separate from one another throughout life. The whale¬ 
bone, which is of a deep black colour, is short and broad, and of a coarse and but 
slightly elastic structure. In length the humpback varies from 45 to 50 feet; the 
flippers measuring from 10 to 14 feet in length. The general colour of the body is 
black above, but often more or less marbled with white below, while the flippers 
may be either entirely white, or black above and speckled with white below. The 
skeleton of the flippers has four digits, with a great number of joints. 
The name humpback, according to Captain Scammon, is derived from the 
prominence on the back which carries the fin, but there appears to be considerable 
individual variation in regard to the degree of its development. Captain Scammon, 
from whose figures our plate is taken, makes this prominence at least as high as 
any other part of the back, while in the position assumed by the suckling female 
in the lower half of the plate it is the highest point of all. In a figure given by 
Sir W. H. Flower the whole back is made more arched, with the highest point only 
a short distance behind the base of the flippers; possibly, however, there may be 
individual differences in this respect. It may be mentioned here that when a whale 
leaps out of the water, as in the topmost figure of our plate, it is said to “ breach ”; 
when a fin is shown out of the water, as in the two right upper figures, the action is 
termed “ finning ”; while, when the flukes alone are exposed, as on the left side of 
the plate, it is called “ lob-tailing.” 
Distribution Humpbacks are found in nearly all seas, and at present it appears 
impossible to distinguish more than a single species, although some 
writers maintain that the one inhabiting the Persian Gulf is distinct from the 
common form. Although they are said to be not uncommon off the eastern coast 
of Scotland during the summer, but few examples have been taken in the British 
Seas. One was, however, captured at Newcastle in 1839, a second at the mouth 
of the Dee in 1863, a third in Wick Bay, Caithness, in 1871, and a fourth in the 
Tay during the winter of 1883-84. 
