78 SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRLTLSH SEAS. 



converted into manure. The same individual is recorded under the name of 

 B. temiirostris^ in the Mag. of Nat. History, iv., 1840, p. 342, by Mr. R. H. 

 Sweeting. Very little is known about the history or distribution of this 

 species ; the flippers are entirely black above, wanting the white band found 

 in the next species, and the baleen is believed to. be black. 



LESSER RORQUAL. 



The next and last of the Whalebone-Whales which we know to have 

 occurred in the British Seas is the LESSER RORQUAL {Balcenoptera rostrata, 

 Vd.h.\ Rorqiiahis minor, Knox), (Fig. 15). Many individuals of this species 

 have been obtained on various parts of the coast, from Cornwall to the North 

 of Scotland. On the coast of Norway it is frequently met with, and is there 

 called the " Bay- Whale," from its habit of entering bays and estuaries ; this 

 habit the natives take advantage of for its destruction. Stretching a strong 

 net across the inlet, they cut off its escape, and put a cruel and often protracted 

 end to its existence with harpoons and arrows, the poor Whale sometimes 

 lingering from eight to fourteen days. This species is also known as the 

 " Summer- Whale," and does not appear to be so strictly a northern species as 

 the Balsenopteridae generally are : it is believed, like the Common Rorqual, 

 to have been taken in the Mediterranean. A Whale of this species, taken at 

 Mevagissey, in Cornwall, at the end of April, 1880, was conveyed to London, 

 and there exhibited in the Old Kent Road. 



The Lesser Rorqual, from its small size (not exceeding 30 feet), is not 

 liable to be mistaken for any other species except the preceding (Rudolphi's 

 Rorqual), and from that it may be distinguished by the broad white band 

 across its black flipper ; the baleen also is nearly white, which is another good 



