THE GRAY WHALE. 367 



The head of this species is elongated and rather flattened, and the throat 

 and chest are furnished with very deep longitudinal folds, which are 

 capable of dilatation to a great extent. 



At the extremity of the snout there are eight distinct bristles, arranged 

 in perpendicular rows on the top of each jaw. It has been called by a 

 great number of names by different writers, and is mentioned by various 

 authors under no less than seventeen distinct titles. The color of this 

 animal is black upon the upper parts of the body, and white on the 

 abdomen, tinged with a reddish hue. The pectoral fin is almost entirely 

 dark, but changes into white on its upper surface, near its base. 



On the American coasts the Pike Whale is never made a regular 

 object of pursuit. It is often, however, attacked when it comes near the 

 coast ; all the fishing-boats of the neighborhood put out to sea, surround 

 the bewildered animal and drive it into shallow water, where it can be 

 dispatched at leisure. 



The Southern Rorqual, Balcenoptera Australis, has a long dorsal fin 

 placed not far backward as usual, but just over the flippers. It is some- 

 times seen at the Cape of Good Hope, but is never pursued. 



THE CALIFORNIA GRAY WHALE. 



The classification of all these cetaceans is still very unsettled. Cap- 

 tain Scammon remarks : " We have experienced the greatest difficulty in 

 finding any two of these strange animals alike, or possessing any marked 

 generic or specific differences. If the differences pointed out as consti- 

 tuting different species are maintained, we conclude there must be a great 

 number." One of the sufferers by modern systems of classification is the 

 California Gray Whale, for which Professor Cope has formed a 

 separate genus, Rhachiancctcs. This species differs from the Southern 

 Rorqual by the color of its baleen, and the number of its vertebra, and 

 from the Right Whale by its short head. It has no dorsal fin. 



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