52 



side, and those in the middle of each series have a length of ten to twelve 

 feet. It is by means of this apparatus that the v^^hale is enabled to avail 

 himself of the minute, but highly nutritious, crustaceans and Medusa Villiiia 

 vphich swarm in immense shoals in the seas it frequents. These plates of 

 baleen or whalebone act as strainers. The food thus filtered off by the 

 action of the whale bone and the raising of the tongue and shutting of the 

 jaws is left stranded upon the gigantic tongue and then swallowed down 

 the narrow throat. This whale attains a length of fifty to sixty-five and oc- 

 casionally seventy feet. It produces a single foal or "sucker" at a birth, 

 which at birth is ten to fourteen feet long. The bowhead whale, whose 

 range is circumpolar, probably belongs to this species. According to Scam- 

 mon, it is seldom seen south of the fifty-fifth parallel north latitude, which 

 is about the farthest southern extent of winter ice. In other words, it is an 

 "ice whale". This whale and the southern right whale resemble each other 

 in the absence of a dorsal fin and longitudinal furrows in the skin of the 

 throat and chest, but they differ in that the southern right whale possesses 

 a smaller head in proportion to its body, shorter baleen, a different shaped 

 contour of the upper margin of the lower lip, and a greater number of 

 vertebrae. 



The Megaptera, commonly called the "humpback" whale, is characterized 

 from all others of the group, especially by its immense length of the pec- 

 toral fins or flippers, which are indented or scalloped along their margins, 

 and are, except at the base, of a white color, nearly all the rest of the body 

 being black. It differs from the right whale and resembles the rorqual 

 in having the skin on the throat and chest marked with deep longitudinal 

 furrows. The Baleen or whalebone plates are short and broad and of a 

 deep black color. The usual length of the adult ranges from forty to fifty 

 feet. The production of its oil varies more than in all other whales. 

 Scammon reports having seen individuals which yielded but eight or ten 

 barrels of oil and others as much as seventy-five. Whalemen distinguish 

 this mammal at a considerable distance by its undulating movement. They 

 are found in both the North and South Pacific. During the breeding sea- 

 son this species is remarkable for its amorous antics. At such times their 

 caresses are of the most amusing and novel character. When lying side 

 by side of each other they frequently administer alternate blows with 

 their long fins, which love pats may, on a still day, be heard at a distance 

 of miles. 



The Balaenoptera composed of the rorquals or fin whales have the plicated 

 skin of the throat like that of the megaptera, the furrows being more 

 numerous and close-set; but the pectoral fin is comparatively small and the 

 dorsal fin distinct and falcate. This whale is comparatively small, flat and 

 pointed in front, the baleen or whalebone short and coarse, the body long 

 and slender, and the tail very much compressed before it expands into the 

 flukes. The rorquals are perhaps the most abundant and widely distributed 

 of all the whales, being found in some of their modifications in all seas, 

 except the extreme Arctic, and probably Antarctic regions. They yield 



