. II 12 13 Length of Whale in metres Fig. 19. Male Humpback whales. Measurement Fig. 20 The graphs are from data obtained at South Georgia. Data from South Africa are indicated by O. Female Humpback whales. Measurement no. 21. Greatest width of skull. COLOUR The general coloration of the Humpback whale is black above and white below, but, as is well known, a great variety of individual variation in the respective amounts of black and white occurs, no two specimens being identical in colour. Lillie (1915) classified the coloration of the New Zealand Humpback whales on which he worked into four
. II 12 13 Length of Whale in metres Fig. 19. Male Humpback whales. Measurement Fig. 20 The graphs are from data obtained at South Georgia. Data from South Africa are indicated by O. Female Humpback whales. Measurement no. 21. Greatest width of skull. COLOUR The general coloration of the Humpback whale is black above and white below, but, as is well known, a great variety of individual variation in the respective amounts of black and white occurs, no two specimens being identical in colour. Lillie (1915) classified the coloration of the New Zealand Humpback whales on which he worked into four main and three intermediate types. His figure illustrating the four main types is here reproduced for reference (Fig. 38), the three intermediate types being 1-2, 2-3, 3-4. Lillie shows that the black dorsal coloration tends to creep down round the sides in three bands which coalesce in the extreme type, one behind the flipper and over the posterior part of the ventral grooves, one below the dorsal fin, and one a short distance proximal to the insertion of the tail flukes. His colour groups are stages in the pro- gressive covering of the ventral surface by the encroachment of the dorsal black pigment over the flanks and belly. The analysis of the coloration of the Humpback whales examined by the Discovery staff from South Georgia and South Africa (treated together), compared with Lillie's Terra-Nova Expedition New Zealand whales, is given in Table X. The Discovery data refer to fifty-three specimens, twenty-five males and twenty-eight females: those of the Terra-Nova refer to thirty specimens, seventeen males and thirteen females. Lillie's
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