186
APPENDICES.
had been most numerous. Only the stations at Saldanha Bay, which based their catches principally on other species, could face the facts with some calm; for all the others the default of humpbacks was a matter of life and death, and they looked forward with uneasiness to the next season.
In 1913 the humpbacks came back; whaling prospered at most places, and the shares rose again. It is to be hoped that the industry, as the result of this expe rience, will enter on to a saner path and that in future it will be spared the foolish competition which threatened the South African whaling in its first period.
HumpbackSouth African humpbacks may be regarded as sub-species of Megaptera nodosa, for which name M. n. lalandii is available. In size and form the South African humpback closely resembles that of the north, and the differences which occur [between the two races] nearly all fall within the possible limits of indi- vidual variation [in either]. Length, as a rule, 12-13 metres one of the largest, a pregnant female taken at Port Alexandra, was 15 metres long and 12 metres in cir- cumference at the navel. One caught at the same place measured 32 feet.
The dimensions of a male examined at Ďurban, 15th November, 1912:—
APPENDICES.
187
The palate is generally pale flesh-coloured, but the tongue and other parts of the mouth are preponderatingly blue-grey. The baleen is generally blue-grey, pan- tially white striped; but sometimes the majority of the plates may be quite white; the "hair" is usually light gray, but posteriorly in the mouth and at the base of the plates it is somewhat darker.
Between 1st August and 8th October, 1911, Ingebrigtsen took at Port Alex- andra 115 humpbacks, 45 males, 54 females, and 16 sex not recordedi Thirty-two of the males were taken in August; later the females were in great preponderance. The catch was regular and rich until end of September, but it then declined rapidly The three-colour varieties in this catch were distributed as follows:---
Males. Females.
A. Blue or grey-black belly
B. White spotted or striped belly
C. Quite white belly
Total.
57
29
28.
20
8
14
18
8
10
Colour not sufficiently noted in 22. The distribution in time of these varieties was:-
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TC.O. 885
23 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Total length
Tip of snout to eye
Tip of anout to blowholes
Tip of snout to anterior insertion of pectoral
Tip of snout to gape
Tip of snout to dorsal fin (anterior)
Notch of flukes to anus...
Notch of flukes to penis
Notch of flukes to navel
Height of dorsal fin
Pectoral length
Pectoral breadth
Metres.
12.4
3:22
100
25-9 per cent.
2.35
4:2
==
=
18.9
39.8
"
8
=
24:1
12
8.4
=
67-7
2.85
=
29.9
4
=
32.2
5
#
4
40.3
32.2
91
1
0.19
-
8
1.5
11
Baleen plates, 350 × 2; longest plate, length 620 mm., breadth 180 mm., thickness 5.mm.; shortest anterior plate, 180 mm. long; longest "hair," 200 mm.
Compared with North Atlantic measurements as given by True, orily differences
are that eye and navel are placed somewhat farther back.
The whalers think that the lower jaw, especially in old individuals, is propor- tionately somewhat broader than in the northern humpback; but it might well be doubted whether this could be considered as a general rule.
It is characteristic for the southern 'humpback that the flippers are often per- forated at one or another place.near the edge: but otherwise they completely resemble those of the northern humpbacks in form.
The situation of the tubercles is also the same. The hair-growth appears to be weaker on the average than in the north. On the mandible there are most frequently ten to twelve hairs, with a maximum length of 5 mm. Baleen up to 350 plates on each side, and they are thus somewhat more numerous than in the north, where the highest number of plates is about 320 × 2.
The coloration is, as in the north. especially variable, and it is therefore a bad "specific" character to build on. The upper side is nearly always uniform blue- black, often with a greyish or brownish tinge; the pectoral is coloured as the back above, and white below. The lower side is in most cases blue-grey, with white spots around the genital opening; but numerous examples have more or less extensive white spots or stripes also on the belly or chin; others, again, have a greater or smaller part of the belly, or even the whole ventral surface, white. Between these three stages all transitions are found, and on the whole.it might be difficult to find two examples precisely alike. The caudal fin is usually white below. but sometimes also black. Occasionally it may be white on the right and black on the left side, or the converse. In a male taken at Port Alexandra on 13th September, 1911. only the outermost corners of the caudal flukes were white.
Some
In blank individuals the genital region is often the only greyish part. voung examples may be quite black. A medium sized female (Port Alexandra 28th September. 1911) was quite black. with quite white flippers. Some individuals are white spotted along the tip of the snout. A medium sized female (Port At Alexandra, 9th September, 1911) was light red between the throat-pleats. Durban humpbacks are now and again caught of a predominating white hue--conse- quently partial albinos.
1st-15th August 15th-30th
*
lat-15th September
15th-30th
Variety A.
Variety B. Variety G.
14
7
12
3
4
18
15
6
4
3 3.
It is apparent from the above tables that the black variety, which is rare in the north, constitutes the chief stock at South Africa. Besides, one finds both males and females of all three varieties present in a regular number through the whole season. These varieties do not keep apart in small lots but mingle together. Thus, of a pair one could often be black, the other light-bellied. A special feature of the southern humpback is that the flipper is nearly always dark-coloured above. Of the above-mentioned 115 only six had quite white flippers, but this in the northern humpback is the rule; but, having regard to the extraordinary variability of the humpback in the matter of colour, one can scarcely attribute much systemie importance to this character.
While the humpbacks are present on the African coast the pairs are always united and occur either as single pairs or several pairs in a small "school." They. appear on the south coast at the end of May and occur only insignificantly later on the coasts of Portuguese West and East Africa. Some arrive on the south coast and proceed thence northwards either along the east or west coast, but the majority come in from the sea farther north and do not touch the most southern part of Africa while migrating: These last are often observed by seamen migrating northwards or southwards far from land.
On the northward migration the behaviour of the humpback is very variable: Some schools go quite northward without paying any regard either to plankton or fish-shoals; and of these those which are killed have always empty stomachs. Others, on the contrary, give themselves a good time and hunt in the plankton or fish-shoals, and these, when shot, often prove to be gorged, with red kril (Euphausiida) or fish. When there is no plankton present these whales are seen passing up and down the coast, as if bewildered, until they find plankton: again.
A multitude of young unimpregnated females and a smaller number of old sterile females take part also in the breeding migration, and it is probable that it is these whales which give themselves the better time on the way. It is probable that the young females go up to the breeding place in order to be impregnated, since one hardly ever sees humpbacks pairing on the southern portion of the coast..
From the east coast, where the warm: Mozambique current flows southwards to the south coast, instances of humpbacks giving birth to their young even when south of Durban are known, but such whales have nevertheless continued the northward. journey accompanied by the new-born. calves. In July, 1912, a bumpback which was just about to give birth was killed off Durban. Also at Port Alexandra hump- hack pairs, accompanied by new-born calves, are sometimes men at the end of June and the beginning of July migrating northwards
When the old humpbaoke go northwards in order to give birth again they are sometimes accompanied by the young of the preceding year; which are now about 30 ft. long At the southern part of the coast these yearlings.appear as a rule to leave the old ones and to form schoals of their own, which afterwards roam about in the district. The humpbacks caught at Durban between the spring and autumn
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