70 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



which the teats are would not open, so we thought she was 

 a heifer not matured. One can generally guess at the age 

 of a whale by the size of the head ; the body grows very 

 rapidly, but the growth of the head is slower. A whale with 

 a small head and short jaw-bones show it to be a young 

 whale, though the body may be full sized. They soon reach 

 65 feet, the average length of a Finner. 



I have the following records of foetuses : 



Cow 76 ft. had a fcetus of 4 ft. ] Cow 65 ft. had a foetus of 7 in. 



75 6 " 6o 8 ft 



75 " " 7 11 11 02 ,, ,, i2tj ,, 



11 63 11 4 11 oo 11 11 3 ') 



11 7" " 7 11 11 ^4 11 11 4 11 



11 73 " " 3 11 11 *-*3 " " " 



63 6 in. 



73 si ft. 

 7 * )> " 5s " 



5 



65 



65 



This last had no baleen plates, which when the calf is 

 ready to be born are about 2 inches long. These records 

 are worth some notice, as they show considerable difference 

 in the size of the fcetus. The last one had probably to 

 grow 5 or 6 feet before birth and had to get its baleen. 

 It would then be a young monster one-third the length of the 

 mother. The size seems incredible, but at parturition there 

 are no bones to impede the birth, only elastic flesh and 

 blubber, which renders the process an easier one than in the 

 case of limbed mammals. The instance of a cow 50 feet 

 having a fcetus of 2 feet, shows that the cows mature at an 

 early age. The whalers would gladly spare the cows, but it 

 is impossible to tell the sex of the living whale. 



I sketched a fcetus of I o feet. The lower parts of the body 

 were pink, with deeper red towards the tail. The back was 

 of a dark purple colour. I am told that when the calf is 

 about to be born the colour assumes that of the adult. The 

 above fcetus had the throat grooves, and was very like a full- 

 grown whale in miniature ; it had a breadth at the thorax of 

 i 5 inches. 



I have before remarked that bulls may grow as long, but 

 they are not as a rule as fat as cows, especially if the cow is 

 with calf, and the larger the fcetus the fatter the cow ; but 



