250 WHALES AND DOLPHINS 



this singular whale. On the Japanese coast, where the Grey 

 Whale was at one time hunted, it was called Koku kujira, the 

 devil fish. 



Rhachianectes is a whalebone whale which in many ways is 

 intermediate between the Right Whales and the Rorquals, but 

 it is sufficiently distinctive not to be included in either of these 

 groups. It is of rather small size, as whalebone whales go, 

 reaching a maximum length of not more than 45 feet and, 

 as in other whalebone whales, the average length for females 

 of this species is slightly greater than for males. 



The head is small in proportion to the rest of the body, 

 and the snout portion, while not so narrow or arched as in the 

 Right Whales, is not so broad or flattened as in the Rorquals. 

 From the tip of the snout the head curves gently upwards to 

 just in front of the blowhole apertures and, behind these, the 

 outline of the head passes with a very faint depression into the 

 back. The dorsal surface of the body is slightly convex to 

 the beginning of the tail region, where a succession of 8 to 10 

 or more low humps, starting about two-thirds of the body 

 length from the snout, breaks up the evenness of the outline 

 of the stock of the tail. There is no distinct dorsal fin ; in this 

 Rhachianectes resembles the Right Whale. R. C. Andrews in 

 his memoir on the California Grey Whale states of the tail 

 flukes : " They are strikingly different from the slender, graceful 

 flukes of Balcenoptera and equally so from Balcena . . ." 

 The anterior margin of each fluke is, to a very small degree, 

 convex, and the posterior margin of each is convex for most of 

 its length, but near the tip is a very slight concavity, not 

 generally obvious in adult specimens, in which the flukes are 

 usually damaged. The hinder margin, instead of being thin 

 as in the Rorquals, is about an inch thick and broken by 

 shallow indentations, recalling, but to a very much less degree, 

 the serrated margin of the Humpback's tail. 



Andrews tells us that the fliDpers are intermediate in shape 

 between those of the Right Whales and the Rorquals, being 

 broader, thicker and not so pointed as the fins of the latter 

 group, but more lanceolate and not so heavy, thick or broad 

 as the flippers of the Right Whales. The anterior edge is 

 regularly convex and the hinder edge strongly convex except 

 just behind the rather blunt tip, where a shallow concavity is 



