15 



The Cetacea may be divided into the Whales (Cete), 

 which are carnivorous, and the Manates or Mermaids, 

 which are herbivorous. 



I. Cete. Skin smooth, without hair. Limbs clawless, 

 fore fin-like, hinder caudal, horizontal, forked. Teats 2, 

 inguinal. Nostrils enlarged and close together, called 

 blowers. Carnivorous. The group contains three families, 

 the Balwnidcc, Physeteridw, and the Delphinidce. 



Fam. 1. Balenid^. Whalebone Whales. 



Head very large, one-third the size of the body. Jaws 

 toothless. Palate with crowded, transverse, triangular, 

 pendant, homy plates (whalebone or baleen), with a fibrous 

 inner edge, forming " a screening apparatus." Head shelv- 

 ing in front. Blowers far back, longitudinal, separate, each 

 covered with a valve. Spout double. Gullet small. Eyes 

 small, near angle of the mouth. 



1. Bal^ena, Ray, Linn. Right Whales. 



Head rather blunt, swollen. Throat and belly smooth, 

 not plaited. Dorsal fin none. 



These Whales yield the train oil of commerce ; but 

 train appears to be applied by the whalers as we use 

 drain : they refer to the train of the blubber, when 

 speaking of the oil of dolphins, &c., and appear to 

 call all blubber-oil train, in contradiction to head-matter, 

 or spermaceti, which Sibbald says is called " tr/iale-shot" 

 by the English ; it is so called by the Dutch whalers. 



* Bodi/ smooth above. 



The Right Whale. Balaena mysticetus. 

 Balsena myslicetus, //«««. ^. iV. i. 105. O. Fab. Si. Cuv. 

 R. A. i. 296. Oss. Foss. v. 361, t. 25,/. 9, II, t. 26,/. 25. 



The Right, or Whalebone Whale, Dudley, Phil. Trans. 

 xx.xiii. 256. Scoresby, Arctic Regions, i. 448, /. 12,/ 1. 



B. Groenlandica, Linn. 



B. vulgaris, Brisson. 



Head depressed, temporal bone narrow, oblique. There 

 are two series of tubercles on each side of the lower lip ; 

 and according to Scoresby's figure, the head is f , the fins 

 are -j, the vent \, and the sexual organs -f from the head. 



Females larger than the males. 



Inhab. North Sea. 



The Nord Caper, Anderson, B. Islandica, Brisson, B. 

 glacialis, Klein, Noi-d Caper, Bonnat. Sjr Lacep. t. 2, 3, does 

 not appear to differ from the former. It is said to be thin- 

 ner, and infested with Barnacles ; this would lead one to 

 think that it was established on a specimen out of health. 

 Lacepede's figures above cited, from a drawing by Back- 

 strom, communicated by Sir Joseph Banks, are the best 

 figures of the Right Whale after Scoresby's. 



Cuvier gives a figure of the skull of this species fi-om the 

 specimen in the British Museum. The nose of the skull 

 is regularly and gradually arched above, rather wide be- 

 hind, near the blow-hole, the nose and the intermaxillary 

 bones regularly taper in front. The hinder end of the jaw- 

 bones is obliquely produced behind, and the firontal bones 



are narrow, nearly linear, and oblique. — Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. 

 /. 25,/ 9— 11. 



Mr. Pearsall informs me the foetus of the Whalebone 

 Whale in the Museum of the Hull Philosophical Society 

 has no rudiment of whalebone on the palate, and the lips 

 are very large, and longly depending over the sides of the 

 under jaw. Camper (t. 1, f 1, 2) figures the foetus of this 

 species, and the skull of a young specimen, t. 4 — 0. 



A variety, or probably different species, is thus noticed 

 by M. Guerin, a surgeon of a whaler. 



The RocK-NOSED Whale is said " never to leave the 

 coast, and even to make the circuit of the bays. The most 

 important point (of difi'erence) is the comparative size of 

 the head and body. The head is always considerably 

 more than ^, while in the true B. mysticetus it is, as stated 

 by Scoresby, less than ^, or as 16 to 51. The whalebone 

 is longer in comparison to the length of the animal, but 

 the lamina) are thinner for their length, the body is broader 

 and terminates more abruptly ; the skin is dark velvet- 

 brown, and has fewer spots and yields less oil. The whal- 

 ers in general seem to think that it is merely a difference 

 of age that causes this difference in their external charac- 

 ters, but cubs or sucklers are as often found amongst the 

 Rock-noses as amongst the Middle Ice Whales ; the for- 

 mer must have attained the age of maturity." — Guerin, in 

 Jameson's N. Edin. Phil. Jour. 1845, 267. 



The Cape Whale. Balaena australis. 



Balaena australis, Desmoulin, Diet. Class. H. N. t. 140, 

 /. 3, foetus. 



B. du Cap, Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. 368, t. 24, t. 25, /'. 1—8, 

 t. 26, f. 7, 11, 13, 23, t. 27,/ 10, 15,24. 



Skull convex, temporal bone broad, erect. 



Inhab. South Sea, Delalande. Cape of Good Hojje. 



Skeleton and foetus, Mus. Paris. 



Cuvier gives the details of the skeleton of this species, 

 and figures them. The nose of the skull is high, straight, 

 and rather suddenly bent down in front ; the nose and the 

 intermaxillary bones contract in the middle, and then con- 

 tinue of the same width in front. The hinder part of the 

 jaw-bones is nearly perpendicular, and the temporal bones 

 are broad and erect. — Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. t. 25,/. 5 — 7. 



Cuvier also figures the skull of a newly born specimen 

 of the same species, only two feet long, which only differs 

 in being shorter, lower, and in the hinder part of the jaw- 

 bone being more slanting. — Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. /. 25,/ 1 — 3. 



In False Bay they carry on the fishery from the shore, 

 and during the time Mr. Warwick was there, only one bull 

 out of sixty specimens was killed, the females coming in- 

 to the bay to bring forth their young. He skinned one, 

 which was supposed to be not more than eight or ten 

 days old, and it was 20 feet long. 



The Japan Whale. Balaena Japonica. 



Balaena australis, Temm. Fauna Japon. t. 28, 29. 



Temminck's figure is black ; the middle of the belly to 

 the vent, and a spot on the chin and over the eye, white ; 

 the nose has a rounded prominence in front; the head is 5. 

 the entire length ; the pectoral fin large, pointed. 



Inhab. Japan. 



