174 



DISCOVERY REPORTS 



No. 1 020, calf, male: black except for a large white patch (almost symmetrical) on the 

 belly. The patch of an entirely different shape from that of the mother (Plate XIII, fig. i). 



No. 3560. Aduh female: uniform dark slate-grey. A stellate patch of white at the 

 umbihcus (Plate XIII, fig. 2). 



The occurrence of the conspicuous white marking on the belly of these whales is of 

 interest because the colour of the Right whale is usually said to be black all over, though 

 both Allen (1908), Andrews (1908, 1909) and Collett (1909) mention small spots and 

 large ventral patches of white as occurring sometimes on the Northern Right whale. 

 Lonneberg (1906) records white patches on two out of seven Southern Right whales 

 examined at South Georgia. 



BALEEN 



The baleen of the Right whale is very long when compared with that of balaenopterid 

 whales (Plate XII, fig. i ; Plate XIV, fig. i ; Plate XV, figs, i and 2). The longest plate 

 measured in the present series was 2-04 m. in length. Hinton (1925) records a plate 

 measured by Barrett-Hamilton in South Georgia as 2-21 m. long. The detailed measure- 

 ments of the baleen of the whales of the present series are shown in Table II. The baleen 

 of the calf, No. 1020, is noted as being in an almost rudimentary condition; it was only 

 17 cm. long. That of whale No. 3560 was dark grey in colour. The bristles were black 

 and of fine texture. They were very long and drooped from their insertions upon the 

 plates. Plate XVI, fig. 2, shows two plates of Southern Right whale baleen from South 

 Georgia. Their length is i-86 m. and 2-05 m. respectively: they were taken some years 

 prior to 1924. 



The number of plates is recorded only in whales Nos. 10 19 and 3560, in which there 

 were 235 and 227 plates respectively on one side of the jaw. 



Table II. Southern Right zvhale. Baleen 



HAIR 



Hair occurred on the head of all four whales examined. 



No. 503. An ill-defined group of hairs on the chin, about I in. long and rather fine. 

 No. 1019. Hairs scattered over a relatively large area on the chin. Some hairs also 

 present on the snout in front of a callosity at the anterior end. 

 No. 1020. Numerous hairs on the chin. 



No. 3560. A small tuft of hairs about o-8 cm. in length was seen on the rostrum. 

 Hair groups occur, then, on the chin and the tip of the snout. They were not noted on 



