APPENDICES.
101
MALES
FEMALES.
Finners.
Bouth Georgia.
Finmark. (Cook)"
Ireland. 1911.†
Ireland.
1913.
Newfoundland. (True.)4
Number
Date of Capture.
Length in Foot. Number.
Date of Capture.
Length in Foet.
Average length of all
It. (184) 68-8
ft. (857) 69.9
it. (68) 68
ft.
"It.
(87) 61.25
Males:-
1914.
241
January 10
242
10
69 56.5
248
10
59
247
10
71-25
12
248
10
57.5
37
259
12
69
256
12
69.5
"
257
12
69
21
259
12
53
268
12
66
269
12
271
14
66
278
14
"
275
14
68
#
280
15
70
288
15
67
"
285 286
13
15 15
70-75
70.25
Average length of all Minimum
(105) 66-54
58
(184) 62-92
45
(25) 62.4
58.25
(20) 60-5
@ @
(61) 69-1
(10) 58-6
48.1
59-75
Average length of the sexually
mature
...
(99) 67-15 (128) 64
(28) 68.2
(16) 62-2
(7)
60-4
Smallest of the series regarded as
sexually mature
Maximum
Females:-
ཨྠ : ;
61.75 72
(nearly)
56
58-4
50-1
· 75
68.75
67.5
65
Average length of all
(79) 71-81
Minimum
61
(100) 65-16
42
(21) 64-25
(17) 62-1
(16) 62-8
64.25
51.1
50.6
58.5
Average length of the sexually
mature
(79) 71.81
68.75
1
Smallest sexually mature
61
Maximum
82
(189) 66.26
56 80.5
(20) 64-66
(12) 85-5
(18) 88-8
56.75 75
J
71-2
57.5 70-66
Zoological CHARACTERS.
Size. The lengths recorded in the preceding list may be summarized as follows:-
Average length of all (184) specimens of both sexes
Average length of all (105)
Males.
Of these, 6 (Nos. 131, 242, 243, 248, 259, and 269), or 5-7 per cent., were less than 60 ft. long and are regarded as sexually immature; their lengths range from
The remaining 99, or 94.3 per cent., were sexu-
ally mature, with an average length of Length of smallest male (No. 176) regarded as
sexually mature
Length of largest male (No. 35)
Average length of all (79)
Females.
•
All of these appeared to be sexually mature. Length of smallest female (No. 79)
68.8 ft.
66.54
وو
53 to 59
87.15
29
61.75
13
72
71.81
"
61
"1
Length of smallest pregnant female (No. 282) Length of largest female (No. 245)
63-5 82
"
11
Note. The smallest female (No. 79), though apparently a virgin, was surrounded by a herd of males at the time of capture, and her rather large ovaries were reddish and inflamed.
In the following table these lengths are compared with the lengths of the finners of the North Atlantic which have been recorded by Cocks for the Finmark "fishery," Haldane, Burfield, and J. E. Hamilton for the British, and True for the Newfoundland "fisheries."
The lengths recorded in this table were not all measured in the same way. As previously noted Major Barrett-Hamilton measured the total length in a straight line from the tip of the mandible to the notch of the flukes. Mr. Cocks obtained his measurements from the Finmark whalers who also measured from the tip of the mandible to the notch of the flukes, but in most cases probably they followed the dorsal curves as well. Dr. True and Mr. Burfield measured the whales at Newfoundland and Belmullet, Ireland, respectively, from the tip of the snout to the notch of the flukes along the curves of the back; this length does not differ very materially in value from the straight measurement from the tip of the mandible used by Major Barrett-Hamilton at South Georgia. Mr. J. E. Hamilton measured his specimens at Belmullet in 1913 from the tip of the snout to the notch of the flukes in a straight line; 18 in. have therefore been added to each of the lengths recorded by him in order to make them more nearly comparable with the others in the table.
From this table it appears that the finners of South Georgia are distinctly This is best seen on comparing the larger than those of the North Atlantic. averages for the mature of each sex. Mature males average more than 3 ft., mature females more than 5 ft. longer than the highest corresponding averages of the North Atlantic (Finmark coast). It is true that the largest male from Finmark is con- siderably longer than the largest male recorded from South Georgia; but, as is shown below (p. 131), there is reason to believe that the largest southern male finners were not present at South Georgia during the months mid-November to mid- January. By far the largest female recorded from the North Atlantic is the one from the Finmark coast, of which it is related (Cocks, Zoologist, 1887, p. 217) that she, when mortally wounded, towed two steamers with engines reversed at full speed for two hours; the length of this quite exceptional whale is 15 ft. less than that of the largest female seen at South Georgia. The average lengths of mature males and females captured at Belmullet, on the west coast of Ireland, are slightly smaller than those from Finmark; the Belmullet maxima are far inferior to those of Finmark and South Georgia. As was first pointed out by True, and subse- quently confirmed by Burfield and J. E. Hamilton, the Newfoundland measurements are smaller than those from the European side of the North Atlantic; the differ- ence is, in the opinion of all observers, not a sufficient ground for doubting the " schools of northern finners. The specific identity of these eastern and western meaning of the difference is discussed below under “Migration."
In a valuable series of papers (Ann. Scott. Nat. Hist., 1904-1909) Mr. Haldane has given average and maximum lengths of a very large number of finners captured between 1903 and 1908 at the Shetland whaling stations and at
* Cocks, Zoologist, 1884 to 1890.
Burfield, Report, British Association, 1912.
True, op. cit., 112-115.
J. E. Hamilton, Report, British Association, 1014.
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