SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE 177 



end. The whole of the tongue is quite smooth, colour bluish-grey with some insignificant 

 spots and streaks of white. 



No. 1020. Palate about the same, or slightly wider than in the mother (No. 1019). 



No. 3560. The palate was white in colour and flat. Under the tip of the snout be- 

 tween the anterior baleen plates it widened out to a spatulate area 32 cm. in width. No 

 Jacobson's organs were seen on the snout (Plate XV, figs, i and 2). The tongue was 

 comparatively small, but was very thick and muscular. Its surface was smooth and its 

 colour white, with grey-blue flecks laterally (Plate XV, fig. i). 



BLUBBER 



The blubber is thick in comparison with the size of the whale (Plate XIV, fig. 2). It 

 is noted in No. 1019 as being much softer than in Blue and Fin whales. In this whale 

 its thickness on the back above the shoulders was 14 cm., above the umbilicus 25 cm., 

 half-way between the notch of the flukes and the blow-hole 36 cm., and on the flank 

 opposite the anus 22 cm. 



In No. 1020 the blubber was 9 cm. thick on the flank opposite the anus. 



No further notes on the blubber are recorded. 



PARASITES 



EXTERNAL 



All the Right whales examined were very heavily infested with the isopod Cyamus. 

 The parasites are found in particularly large numbers on the callosities of the head, but 

 are not confined to them. Detailed notes are as follows: 



No. 1019. Very thick swarms of cyamids in the genital groove, on each side of the 

 chin, and on the callosities of the mandible, above the eye, and round the blow-hole. 

 The greater part of the body almost free from parasites. No other parasites were 

 observed. 



No. 1020. Numerous masses of cyamids all over the head and thorax, especially on 

 the lips, above and below the eye, on the rostrum, and ventrally between the flippers 

 and on the tail. 



No. 3560. Patches of the skin [the callosities] were heavily infected with cyamids of 

 every age and size. The cyamid patches were very greatly thickened and proliferated 

 areas of the epidermis in which myriads of the cyamids burrowed, so that the deeper 

 individuals were almost completely buried. No diatom film was seen. 



In addition to cyamids, cirripedes are recorded from one whale: the note for No. 503 

 reading " a mass of encrusted barnacles and lice on each side of the chin ". 



No scars, such as are found on other whales, made by an unknown agent in the seas 

 of lower latitudes, were recorded from the whales of the present series. There is no 

 record, positive or negative, regarding three of them, but of the fourth, No. 3560, it is 

 noted that no pits or scars of any sort were seen on the surface of the skin. 



