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148
APPENDICES.
From the south-west coast of Norway only two or three wounded or drifted individuals are known.
Occasionally blue whales have strayed into Cattegat, and examples, such as the young male upon which Malm based his “B. carolina," have been stranded on the west coast of Sweden.
Others sometimes stray into the more southern parts of the North Sea, and some of these have from time to time been stranded on the east coast of Britain. The first specimen of the species of which we have definite information was such a stray which, having run aground in the Firth of Forth, in 1892, was described in detail by Sibbald. Another instance is provided by the Longniddry whale, which has been referred to above under "Breeding." Sometimes such strays may succeed in passing the Straits of Dover, since, in July, 1873, a blue whale was stranded on the shore of the Bay of Biscay.
As a consequence of the migration the "catches" made at different stations and at different times vary considerably, not only as regards the total numbers, but in the proportion of males to females and in the size and age of the individuals caught. Thus, judging from Mr. Haldane's records during the seasons 1904 to 1908, only ten blue whales in all were obtained; while at the Hebrides during the same period no fewer than 152 were caught. The distribution of these whales among the different seasons and between the sexes is shown in the following table :--
1904
1905
1906
1907
1908
Season.
Hebrides.
Shetlands.
Tutal,
Males.
Females.
Tola'.
Maleo,
Females.
€7375
200
1*34*
42
27
15
31
18
13
6
53
35
18
9
17
9
8
The Shetland specimens were usually of small size and immature; those from the Hebrides were larger, with dimensions more nearly like those of the adults obtained at Finmark.
At Inishkea, Ireland, in 1909, twenty-seven blue whales were caught between the end of June and September; of these thirteen were bulls with an average length of 65 ft. 5 in., and fourteen were cows with an average length of 66 ft. 5 in. (Lillie. Proceedings Zoological Society, 1910, p. 772). A considerable proportion of these whales must have been little more than calves. Lillie states that in this district the blue whales arrive after the seihval have left.
At Belmullet, four caught between 14th July and 5th August, 1911, were females (three mature, one immature), one of which was accompanied by a sucking calf about 50 ft. long. In 1913, between 10th July and 9th September, four were caught here, and again they were all females; of these only one, that of 10th July, could be regarded as mature. These observations and their dates suggest that on the return migration the schools passing near to the west coast of Ireland consist chiefly of females or immature whales.
At Newfoundland the blue whales caught during the summer months (judging from those seen by True in June and July, 1901) are principally immature. adolescent, or else young adults. Of ninety-two specimens of which the sex is recorded, fifty-eight were males and thirty-four females; only nineteen males and fourteen females could be regarded as having attained sexual maturity. The schools which pass the island in February and those which arrive in October and November are not improbably of a different character.
Little is known of the migration of the blue whale in the South Atlantic. From Major Barrett-Hamilton's observations at Leith Harbour, South Georgia, it appears that there, between 15th November and 15th December, 1913, females were much more numerous than males; that in the following month males were about 2 per cent. more numerous than females; that the immature females were twice as many as the immature males, and that the majority of the immature of each sex were captured in the first fortnight of January. It may be suggested that
APPENDICES,
149
these facts afford some evidence of the segregation of similar individuals in dis- tinct schools and of the general movement or migration of the species.
Mörch mentions that large schools of blue whales have been observed along the West African coast; they were feeding upon plankton, but the few caught were all very lean.
Lieutenant Strong also speaks of West African blue whales in his report* cited above on p. 91. It is not improbable that these, like the humpbacks of the west coast, are migrants from the region of South Georgia.
Captain Bryde told Major Barrett-Hamilton that he thought he once saw a blue whale off the east coast of South America, "south of the Abrolhos Bank, near Rio, in about 220 South latitude. This was the nearest to the tropics that he ever saw one, and he believes that this whale does not usually go nearer to the Equator than 350 North and South, and that it never crosses the line.
"
As noted by Major Barrett-Hamilton in his letters to Mr. Fagan and Dr. Harmer, dated from Leith Harbour 2nd December, 1913, and 12th January, 1914, respectively, the average size of the blue whale of South Georgia is considerably greater than that of the corresponding form of the North Atlantic. Apart from this greater size, and the few small differences in the proportions of the body (differ- ences which may be consequences of the greater length) the southern blue whales appear to differ in no respect from those of the North Atlantic. If it should be shown that the blue whales of the two regions do not mingle in equatorial waters the difference of size would probably be regarded by systematic zoologists as suffi- cient ground for recognizing the two forms as distinct sub-species. But the syste- matic relationships of the northern and southern whales will not be properly ascertained until good skull material has been procured for comparison, and until further researches have been made at the West African or other tropical whaling stations.
P.S.-In Major Barrett-Hamilton's Journal, 16th December, 1913, is the do not occur here in schools. They are said following note:-"Blue whales
to be in greater numbers farther west, where it does not pay to follow them."
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"SEI-WHALES (BALENOPTERA, SP.).
In the report to the British Museum made by the Ocean Whaling Company the following measurements of "sei-whales are given :-
1914 April 21
Date.
No other particulars are given.
Males.
27
Date.
Females.
ft. 56
ft.
1914 February 28
52
28
55
**
March 6
51
14...
52
*F
19
14...
18...
17
20...
51 + 57 44
*
"ו
It is highly improbable that this southern "sei-whale" is specifically identical with the northern species B. borealis. The latter is a plankton-eating species with a distribution apparently normally restricted to the eastern portion of the North Atlantic, in which it ranges from about 200 N. latitude northwards, visiting the Arctic Ocean between Spitzbergen and Novaja Zemlja in the summer; suray indi- viduals have been killed as far west as Newfoundland.
Olsen (Proceedings, Zoological Society, London, 1913, ii., p. 1073) has proved that the so-called seihval" of the African coast is quite a distinct species from B. borealis, and he has named it B. brydei. It seems most likely that the form from South Georgia and the Falkland Islands is distinct also. Collett states the length of B. borealis to be 40 to 48 ft. (Norwegian), but that it occasionally reaches 52 ft. The species occurring at South Georgia is apparently a little larger. B. brydei on the other hand, is smaller than the true seibval."
No. 18 in Miscellaneous No. 278.
44
This whale contained a fœtus 11 ft. long.
Cf., however, Lillie, Brit. Antarct. ("Terra Nova'') Expedition, 1910, Nat. Hist. Report, Zool.,
vol. 1, p. 117; he refers a female examined at New Zealand to B. borealis.
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