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APPENDICES.

mix with each other. In his Journal, kept at South Georgia, under date 18th December, 1913, Major Barrett-Hamilton says:-"Finners that are taken here are the large black or yellow form, which is known also in the North Atlantic and is said never to mix with the small dark form. The small dark form was the one found by True at Newfoundland, as shown by his photographs. These two cinsses keep in different herds. Finners are always scattered here in small lots; never in large schools, as they sometimes are in the north, where, for instance, Henriksen once met very many four hours north of Aberdeen."

Professor Collett (Norges Pattedyr, p. 573) says:—

"The finner is normally with us dark above, almost grey-black, with the belly and under-surface of the tail white. On the back the dark colour is often mixed with large spots of yellow-grey, by which the general colour is brindled; the yellowish-grey sides merge insensibly in the more or less white belly. At Finmark these (younger) appear during the capelan fishery in March and April, but after the close of the latter month many of thei disappear with the capelan, which, after spawning, go northwards (or else- where) again.

"Later in the summer there often appear at Finmark schools of finners which are called by the whalers, on account of their slenderness (leanness), Langrör.' This form is lighter above than the capelan whale, and the white colour of the ventral surface is more or less mixed with grey. It is thin and sharp-nosed and its food is partly fish, partly plankton (Crustacea). Finally there were sometimes caught at Finmark large individuals, whose length was 68-70 feet (22 metres) or more. These large whales might have a quite greyish belly and be light blue-grey above; the anterior baleen is described as being always white, the posterior very dark-coloured. The whalers called them bastards' since they assumed them to be produced by a cross between the blue whale and the finner.

"It is probable that these large individuals are merely finners in their oldest stage of growth.

"The colour tone appears, on the whole, to be essentially dependent upon age, and therefore the majority or all the members of one school may quite well be fairly similar to each other; not seldom, however, light and dark individuals are seen with each other in the same school [cf., Haldane, above at p. 129]. The darkest individuals are usually the younger; when such a one has lain dry upon the shore for some time it will appear nearly black."

This passage is of great importance, since it suggests that the alleged varie- ties of finner in the North Atlantic are nothing more than the expression of those differences of colour and form which characterize these whales at different stages of growth. That the varieties should be found as a rule in distinct schools is not surprising or inconsistent with this suggestion when we remember that the schools of all the whales dealt with in this report are very generally composed apparently of individuals of similar age and sex; and for proof that this is so in the particu- lar case of the finner one cannot do better than refer to Professor Guldberg's account of the segregation of the calves observed in the Varangerfjord in 1883 (see above at p. 126).

Professor Collett's suggestion leads us further to two matters which may well repay future investigation. It is highly probable that the primitive Mystacoceti were fish-feeders; and that the substitution of a diet of plankton for one of fish was an advance made later in the history of the group. This change of diet had most important consequences upon the structure of these whales, leading, as it did apparently, to the entire loss of teeth (in all but foetal stages of growth); to the acquisition of baleen; and to all the great modifications of skull and soft parts which have ensued upon the development of the "whalebone." In this connexion. therefore, it is of much interest to find a suggestion that young and adolescent finners (herring or capelan whales) retain the ancestral taste for fish, while only the mature or old ("bastard") finners develop the comparatively modern habit of feeding upon plankton.

As noted above under "Size," the finners studied by True at Newfoundland in August were distinctly smaller than those obtained from the European stations: True's photographs show, as Major Barrett-Hamilton pointed out in his Journal cited above, that his specimens are to be referred to the small dark form of "herring whale" of the Norwegians. Speaking of his measurements True (op. cit., p. 113)

says:

APPENDICES.

131

:-"As regards minima, it should be kept in mind that the whalers at Snook's Arm avoided the smaller individuals, since they were unprofitable for oil. There were undoubtedly many small, young whales in Notre Dame Bay at the time the larger ones above cited were obtained. They were distinguishable in the water and their spout was less dense and high than that of the adult." Recalling Guld- berg's description of the swarms of young whales in the Varangerfjord in May and June, 1883 (p. 126 above), Collett's suggestion that the "herring or capelan whale is nothing more than the young or adolescent finner seems to gain in probability. The possibility that the schools of young finners (herring whale) in March and April may be identical with those visiting Newfoundland in August suggests itself. It is to be hoped that notes on the whales caught off Newfound- land at other seasons will be forthcoming; further information from this region might well throw much light upon the migration of the finners.

Captain Bryde informed Major Barrett-Hamilton that the finners go nearer to the Equator than do the blue whale, but they do not cross it; this statement was probably intended to apply to both the northern and southern hemispheres (cf. note of same conversation under "Blue Whale," p. 149, below).

As regards the South Atlantic, Mörch states that, from a consular report, "it appears that great numbers of the finback whale congregate in the waters along the Brazil coast between south latitudes 120 and 180 every year during the period from May to November." As will be seen from the table at p. 123 above this period embraces the chief or normal season of pairing and parturition in the South Atlantic. Further information from this region would be very welcome.

蛋白

At South Georgia, according to the notes attached by the Stipendiary Magis- trate to his report for 1912, finners are present throughout the year; but among Major Barrett-Hamilton's general memoranda is a note that some migrate." A passage from Major Barrett-Hamilton's Journal, stating that the form which occurs here is the large black or yellow one which is known also in the North Atlantic, has been cited above (p. 129); his notes on Nos. 130, 131, and 141 suggest that the "small dark form" also occurs, and attention must be called to No. 81, a dark whale, only 675 ft. long, which nevertheless had an appearance of age, being blistered and scarred. The note in the Journal just cited says that finners are always scattered here in small lots; never in large schools as they sometimes are in the north. From the statistics given above it would appear that no immature females were brought to Leith Harbour between mid-November and mid-January; that the immature males were all captured after 29th December; and that the length of the largest male caught during Major Barrett-Hamilton's stay amounted to no more than 88 per cent. of the length of the largest female, or from 5 to 7 per cent. less than would be expected upon the assumption that the relative sizes of the sexes are the same in the finners of South Georgia as in those of the North Atlantic. In these facts may be discerned, perhaps, some evidence of the segrega- tion of the finners in schools of similar individuals and of the migrations of the herds.

Until observations have been made at the stations on the west coast of Africa, whence, so far as I am aware, no finners have yet been recorded,* or on the eastern coast of South America, nothing can be said as to the possibility of southern fin- ners straying into the North Atlantic or vice versa. In a letter to Dr. Harmer, dated from Leith Harbour 12th January, 1914. Major Barrett-Hamilton said that he could not see any difference between the finners of South Georgia and those of the north. After carefully working through all the data he collected I can only point to the larger size, some small differences in the proportional measure- ments, and the differences in the months of the year during which most of the pairing and parturition seems to take place (this a mere consequence of the reversal of the seasons in the southern hemisphere) as distinguishing the southern finners from those of the North Atlantic.

BLUE WHALES (BALENOPTERA MUSCULUS,† LINNÆUS, dar.). Material examined.-Fifty blue whales (of which twenty-four were males and twenty-six were females) were landed at Leith Harbour, South Georgia, between 1st December, 1913, and 16th January, 1914. These were examined by Major

Olsen has recently recorded finners from Saldanha Bay and Durban, see Appendix III., (p. 185). = B. sibbaldii, Gray.