RIGHT WHALES 135 



but prefer the temperate waters both north and 

 south of the equator, it might be urged that the 

 northern were distinct from the southern species. 

 And this is and has been the opinion of many. On 

 the other hand, Sir William Flower is inclined to 

 believe in the existence of but a single Balccna 

 besides the Greenland whale, and with this opinion I 

 associate myself. 



The most marked characteristics of this whale 

 have been given in the above diagnosis of Balccna 

 australis. But the number of the ribs appears to be 

 a character that is not absolutely fixed. As a rule 

 Balccna mysticetus has but thirteen ribs, while B. 

 a^lstralis has as many as fifteen. Sir W. Flower,^ 

 however, described some years since an undoubtedly 

 Arctic whale with fourteen ribs, the last being rudi- 

 mentary and only eighteen inches in length. Still, 

 here are fourteen ribs. With this fact must be 

 compared the figure of Balccna japonica, here re- 

 garded as a synonym of B. australis, which, according 

 to a Japanese artist, f has also fourteen pair of ribs ; 

 the accuracy of the Japanese is so well known that we 

 must hesitate before rejecting the fact.J 



Neither apparently can the length of the plates 

 of baleen be absolutely relied upon as a character 

 diagnostic of Balcena australis. Generally the baleen 

 is coarser and shorter than is that of Balcena mysticetus* 



* Proc. Zool. Sac., 1864, p. 416. 



t MOEBIUS, Ueber den Fang und die Verwerthung der Walfische in 

 Japan, SB. k.preuss. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1893, p. 1065. 



\ GULDBERG (loc. tit. on p. 134) also gives fourteen for the Nordcaper. 



