FIN WHALES, OR RORQUALS 1191 



more or less white; the under surface of the flukes, as well as both sides of the 



flippers are, however, colored like the back. The back fin is smaller, 



w** 8 and placed further back than in the lesser finner, while the flippers 



are very small, equaling only one-fourteenth of the total length. 



There are thirteen pairs of ribs, and the whalebone is black. 



This species is much rarer than the other rorquals, and does not appear to have 

 been recorded from the Pacific. It ranges as for south as Biarritz, and migrates 

 northward in summer as far as the North Cape; and either this or a closely-allied 

 species occurs in the seas around Java. Of specimens recorded from the British 

 Islands, the first was stranded on the shores of the Firth of Forth in 1872; the 

 second was caught in the river Crouch, in Essex, in 1883, a third in 1884 in the 

 Humber, a fourth in the Thames at Tilbury in 1887, and a fifth in the Medway in 

 1888. On the coasts of Fiumark the numbers of this whale are very variable, and 

 while it is a constant summer visitor in the western seas, it only occasionally resorts 

 to those in the east. In 1885, the coasts of that country were visited by enormous 

 numbers of this species, while the larger finners and humpbacks which usually re- 

 sort there did not appear at all, and during that summer no less that seven hundred 

 and seventy-one specimens were killed. 



Rudolphi's whale, according to the observations of Mr. Collett, differs from the 

 other finners in feeding entirely on minute crustaceans, never touching fish; and, in 

 accordance with this difference in its diet, the edges of its whalebone are more frayed 

 out and curling than in the other species. On the Finmark coast these whales ap- 

 pear sometimes singly, but more general!}' in schools of varying size, which may 

 occasionally include some fifty individuals. When migrating, or not engaged in 

 feeding, they swim rapidly, and do not require to breath as frequently as the other 

 species. When they come up to blow, they make but one or two respirations, while 

 the others take five or six. When swimming under water, their course can be traced 

 by the bubbles of air continually rising to the surface; and when gorging on the 

 swarms of crustaceans found in the northern seas these whales swim quite slowly, 

 with the muzzle and half the back above water. Rudolphi's whale never appears to 

 utter any sound, and is timid and inoffensive in disposition. The occasional acci- 

 dents that happen to boats engaged in the pursuit of this whale appear to be caused 

 unintentionally during the death throes of the animals. As a rule, but a single 

 young is born at a time, but Mr. Collett records one instance of twins. The whalers 

 of Finmark believe that this whale, like the two larger species of the genus, can re- 

 main under water when resting for upward of eight or twelve hours; such periods 

 of repose often occurring at particular hours of the day. Mr. Collett states that the 

 yield of oil varies from fifteen to thirty barrels, and that the value of one of these 

 whales ranges from one hundred and twenty-five to one hundred and fifty dollars, 

 or about half that of the common fin whale. 



The common fin whale, or rorqual (B. muculus} averages from sixty 



Wh . to sixty-five feet in length, and rarely exceeds seventy feet. It is very 



elongated in form, with moderately-long jaws; the flippers measuring 



one-ninth of the total length. The color of the upper parts and the left side of the 



lower jaw is slaty gray; .while the right side of the lower jaw and the under parts, 



