All these birds were cut up, the livers and hearts
were extracted for food, and the skins were used as
fuel. At the same time the stomachs were invariably
examined, and a record kept of the contents.
The largest proportion of these contained the small
crustacean Euphausia, and this generally to the exclusion
of other forms. Occasionally, however, small
fish were recorded. The quantity of Euphausiae
present in most of the stomachs was enormous for the
size of the birds. These penguins were migrating,
and came ashore only when the bays were clear of ice,
as there were several periods of fourteen consecutive
days when the bays and the surrounding sea were covered
over with a thick compact mass of ice-floes, and then
penguins were entirely absent. Euphausiae, then,
seem to be present in sufficient quantity in certain,
if not in all, sub-Antarctic waters during the southern
winter. We may assume then that the migration
to the south, during the Antarctic summer, is definitely
in search of food. Observations have proved the
existence of a northern migration, and it seems highly
improbable that this should also be in search of food,
but rather for breeding purposes, and it seems that
the whales select the more temperate regions for the
bringing forth of their young. This view is
strengthened by the statistical foetal records, which
show the pairing takes place in the northern areas,
that the foetus is carried by the mother during the
southern migration to the Antarctic, and that the
calves are born in the more congenial waters north
of the sub-Antarctic area. We have still to
prove, however, the possibility of a circumpolar migration,
and we are quite in the dark as to the number of whales
that remain in sub-Antarctic areas during the Southern
winter.
The following is a rough classification of whales, with special reference to those known to occur in the South Atlantic:
1. Whalebone whales (Mystacoceti) | ____________________|__________________ | | Right whales (Balaenidae) Rorquals (Balaenopteridae) | ________________|_________ Southern right whale | | (Balaena glacialis) Finner whales Humpback (Balaenoptera) (Megaptera nodosa) | | Blue whale (B. musculus) Fin whale (B. physalis) Sei whale (B. borealis) Piked whale (B. acutorostrata) Bryde’s whale (B. brydei)
2. Toothed whales (Odontoceti) | _________________________|________________________ | | | Sperm whale Beaked whales Dolphins (Physeter catodon) (including bottlenose whales) (1) Killer (Hyperoodon rostratus) (Orcinus orca) (2) Black Fish (Globicephalus melas) (3) Porpoises (Lagenorhynchus sp.)
The subdivision of whalebone whales is one of degree in the size of the whalebone. These whales have