244 



HARD WICKE 'S S CI EN CE-GO SSIF. 



THE SEALS AND WHALES OF THE 



BRITISH SEAS. 



No. V. 



By Thomas Southwell, F.Z.S., &c. 



THE next family, BalcEuoptcridc?, is represented 

 by two genera, Megapicra and Bahrnoptera. 

 Like the Right-whales, they all have two blow-holes, 

 but may readily be distinguished by having the throat 

 and belly curiously marked with longitudinal furrows, 

 like the ribs in a worsted stocking : they also possess 

 a well-defined dorsal fin. Megaptera longimana, the 

 Humpbacked Whale, the only member of the first 

 genus known to occur in the British seas, has twice 

 been met M'ith ; first at Newcastle in September, 



it is difficult of approach, and upon being harpooned, 

 such is the velocity with which it shoots through the 

 water that the danger is very great ; Scoresby men- 

 tions one which took out 480 fathoms of line in 

 about one minute. In addition to this, the whale- 

 bone is short and of little value, and the yield of oil 

 small ; it is therefore avoided by the whalers, as more 

 dangerous than profitable, and if struck at all, it is 

 most likely a case of mistaken identity. From the 

 port of Vadso, however, the capture of this species is 

 now successfully effected by means of an explosive 

 shell or harpoon, which kills them at once, as many 

 as 30 or 40 being obtained each summer. They are 

 towed into Vadso, where the blubber is refined and 



Fig. 179. The Common Rorqual {Balanoptera muscidus, Linn.). 



1839, and again in the estuary of the Dee, in 1863 : 

 both were females. It is possible other examples 

 may have been mistaken for Rorquals, from which it 

 may at once be distinguished externally by the great 

 length of its flippers, which are white and very con- 

 spicuous. The total length of the animal is about 45 

 to 50 feet, its baleen is black, and the flippers, which 

 are notched at the edge, about 10 feet in length. 



We now come to the genus Bahcnoptcra, the 

 Rorquals or Fin-whales, the first species of which is 

 the Common Rorqual, Bahrnoptera muscnlus 

 (Linn.), the BaLsjioplcra loops of Bell's first edition, 

 and Physalus antiquoi-itin of Gray (fig. 179). This 

 is a much more active animal than the Right-whale : 



the carcase made into manure. The habitat of the 

 Common Rorqual is the temperate Northern seas, 

 from the Mediterranean, which it sometimes enters, 

 to the 70° north latitude, and sometimes even 

 farther north stdl. The range of this group is very 

 great, and, according to Andrew Murray, it would 

 appear that one or more of the Balcenopteridoe is 

 found over the whole world, although it is by no 

 means certain that any particular species has a very 

 wide geographical range. Megaptera longimana, 

 which occurs in the North Sea, was also supposed to 

 have been met with at the Cape, but Dr. Gray has 

 pointed out differences in the cervical vertebrce of an 

 individual from that locality, which he considers 



