150 A BOOK OF~ WHALES 



whale seem to negative this view, and to establish 

 the theory that it is really digit III which has thus 

 nearly disappeared. 



The whales of the genus Balcenpptera have a much 

 more elono-ated form than those of the o-enus Balcena. 



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They are also to be distinguished by the presence of 

 a dorsal fin not large in proportion to the body- 

 which is situated quite at the posterior end of the 

 body. The elongated form conduces towards a greater 

 swiftness of movement ; and for this among other 

 reasons the " Finners," as these whales are termed, 

 are not such profitable creatures to pursue as are 

 the more lethargic Right whales. Besides, the whale- 

 bone is short and the blubber less in amount and 

 inferior in quality. Some two feet is the average 

 length of the whalebone, which contrasts with the 



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twelve or thirteen feet in length of the " bone " of the 

 Greenland whale ; more accurate measurements of the 

 whalebone of the Rorquals is given under the 

 definitions of the four species below. Nevertheless, 

 the Rorquals are hunted, particularly from the coasts 

 of Norway ; and an interesting account of some facts 

 in this fishery has been recently communicated to 

 the Zoological Society of London by Professor 

 Collett. * It is a curious thing that these whales 

 are sometimes pursued with poisoned harpoons ; the 

 poison consists in the decaying flesh of a dead whale, 

 and its effect is to set up septicaemia. The simplicity 

 of this mode of poisoning the prey is curiously 

 paralleled by the poisoned arrows of certain African 



* Proc. Zool. Soc., 1886, p. 243. 



