. Discovery reports. Discovery (Ship); Scientific expeditions; Ocean; Antarctica; Falkland Islands. 27o DISCOVERY REPORTS in the month of September in Bermuda. Except for Wheeler's record, new-born calves of any species of the great whales seem not to have been available previously, and estimates of neonatal length have been approximations based on the length of the smallest calf and the largest foetus examined. For sperm whales such estimates have been close to the present, more exact, information. Matthews (1938, p. 138) gave'4 m. or a little more' in southern whales; Bennett (1836, p. 129;
. Discovery reports. Discovery (Ship); Scientific expeditions; Ocean; Antarctica; Falkland Islands. 27o DISCOVERY REPORTS in the month of September in Bermuda. Except for Wheeler's record, new-born calves of any species of the great whales seem not to have been available previously, and estimates of neonatal length have been approximations based on the length of the smallest calf and the largest foetus examined. For sperm whales such estimates have been close to the present, more exact, information. Matthews (1938, p. 138) gave'4 m. or a little more' in southern whales; Bennett (1836, p. 129; 1840,11, p. 167) measured a full-time foetus which was' 14 feet in length and 6 in girth', a record which Melville (1851, p. 397) and Davis (1874, p. 185) seem to have used in their estimates; Matsuura (1836) and Mizue & Jimbo (1950, p. 127) gave 14 to 15 ft. for neonates in the North Pacific. Turning again to Fig. 6 it is seen that the mean curve of foetal growth shows a gestation period of sixteen months. A little uncertainty about the lowest part of the curve (the beginning of pregnancy) has already been noticed, but a sixteen months period agrees precisely with Matthews' findings (1938, p. 142) and is very close to the seventeen months gestation period found by Mizue & Jimbo (1950, p. 128). There is no doubt that Harmer (1933, p. 410) and Matsuura (1935, 1936) under-estimated when they suggested that pregnancy lasted about 12 months or a little more. Months J un 1J u ly of birth Aug 1 Sep Oct. v o E Dec 'Jan 'Feb 'Mar 'Apr 'May ' Jun 'July' Aug J! Months of pairing Fig. 7. Pairing and birth frequencies from foetuses examined at Horta between 1949 and 1954. The extent of the pairing or sexual season has been determined by drawing lines in Fig. 6 parallel to the mean growth curve but taking their origin at monthly intervals from it; the number of preg- nancies within the lines defining each interval was then counted, being the number of pairings for the month of origi
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