ii8o 



THE CETACEANS 



and are triangular in form, with their broad bases attached to the palate, and their 

 points hanging downward. Although smooth externally, the inner edge of each 

 plate is frayed out into a kind of fringe, thus giving a hairy appearance to the 

 whole of the inside of the mouth when viewed from below. The plates attain the 

 greatest length in the middle portion of the series, from whence they gradually 

 diminish in size toward the two extremities. Baleen differs greatly not only in 

 length, but likewise in its relative thickness and degree of elasticity, in the different 

 species. In color it may vary from black to creamy white; while in some cases it 

 is ornamented with stripes of dark and light. The object of the baleen, as already 

 said, is to strain the water from the small animals on which the whale feeds, and 

 its mode of action is described by Sir W. H. Flower as follows: " In feeding, the 

 immense mouth is filled with water containing shoals of these small creatures, and 

 then, on the whale closing the jaws and raising the tongue, so as to diminish the 

 cavity of the mouth, the water streams out through the narrow intervals between 



Various Kinds 



MEDIAN SECTION, SHOWING THE LEFT SIDE OF THE SKULL OF THE GREENLAND 

 WHALE, WITH THE WHALEBONE. 



Br. brain cavity; J. J. * upper and lower jaws; bo. bones of roof and skull; s. blow- 

 hole, with arrows leading from the cavity of the nostrils; w. whalebone; t. contour of 

 tongue; n. aperture of nerve canal in lower jaw. ( From Southwell's British Seals and 

 Whales. After Eschricht.) 



the hairy fringe of the whalebone blades, and escapes through the lips, leaving the 

 living prey to the swallowed. ' ' 



The whalebone whales are commonly divided into right whales, 

 humpbacks, and rorquals or finners, severally representing as many 

 genera, in addition to which there are two less well-known forms, each of which is 

 entitled to generic distinction. 



RIGHT WHALES 

 Genus Balcena 



The right whales, of which the Greenland whale is the best-known representa- 

 tive, are characterized by the absence of any fin on the back, and of any furrows in 



