46 BRITISH MAMMALS 



flipper. The finger which has disappeared drops out seemingly 

 in the middle of the series, and is possibly the normal third 

 finger. Whalebone whales, though such extreme types of 

 cetacean development in many directions, yet retain a few 

 primitive characteristics. The vestiges of hind limbs are more 

 developed in right whales than in any other member of the 

 order, for these small bones not only represent the pelvis and 

 ischium, but also the thigh bone and a portion of the tibia or 

 upper leg bone. All the whalebone whales, also, have double 

 openings to the nostrils. They further have traces of a smelling 

 organ, which is absent from other whales. It has been already 

 stated that all the whalebone whales, when in the foetal stage, 

 have teeth in the upper and lower jaws, which in calcifying are 

 absorbed by the time the animal is born. The whalebone does 

 not commence to form till the young whale is several weeks old. 

 The southern right whale is now very nearly extinct. At 

 one time it was certainly an inhabitant of the British Channel 

 and of the North Sea, perhaps also of the Irish Sea and Atlantic 

 coast of Ireland. It abounded in the Bay of Biscay, and was also 

 found in the Mediterranean, and perhaps also on the east coast 

 of North America, the South Atlantic, and the Indian Ocean. 

 The last recorded certain appearance of the southern right whale 

 in British waters was at Peterhead (east coast of Scotland) in 

 t8o6, though there is some evidence to show that a specimen 

 was stranded at Yarmouth in 1846. Another was seen off 

 Peterhead in 1872, while the bony remains of a right whale 

 were dredged up off Lyme Regis in 1853. 



Family : BAL^NOPTERID^. THE RORQUALS 



These whalebone whales are not so much specialised as the 

 right whales. The head is proportionately smaller, and the 

 whalebone is much shorter. 



Megaptera boops. The Hump-backed Whale 

 In this whale the flippers are very long and narrow (with 

 only four fingers). The vertebras of the neck are free, and not 



