THE ORDER CETACEA. 101 



about six inches : colour of the back, black ; of the 

 belly, glossy white ; and of the grooves of the plica?, ac- 

 cording to Dr. Traill,* who saw it in Scalpa Bay, a 

 species of flesh colour. 



SPECIES III. 



BAL^ENO'P TERA JUBARTES, THE PIKE HEADED OR 

 .FINNED WHALE. 



The pike-headed whale or finnerf is seen traversing the 

 ocean between Newfoundland and the British Islands, 

 in great numbers ; but, during the months when the 

 common whale (B. mysticetus) sallies forth from his 

 haunts, they are observed running towards the Arctic 

 Seas, and are considered good guides to the retreats of 

 the Greenland whale. Like that animal, the place of 

 teeth is supplied by a quantity of baleen or whalebone 

 in the interior of the mouth, firmly imbedded in the 

 frontal bone ; but in this animal they are shorter, and of 

 a bluish colour. 



The tinner is also much thinner in blubber, more 

 slender, and measures about forty-six feet, and in cir- 

 cumference of body about twenty feet. The dorsal pro- 

 tuberance or fin is somewhat about two feet and a half 

 high ; the pectoral fins vary from four to five feet long, 

 externally, and scarcely a foot broad, the tail about three 



* This Gentleman is now one of the Professors of the University of 

 Edinburgh. 



t Synonymes. — Bales na Boops. In France, the Baleenopfera Ju- 

 bartes. In Greenland, the Keporkak. In Iceland, the Hrafu-Reydus. 

 The Firmer, by the Whalers, and the Pike-Headed Whale, by Pennant. 



Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke is disposed to consider this and the B. 

 Nordcaper the one and same species, from their general locality ; the 

 dorsal fin, however, marks the difference. 



