THE WHALES AND PORPOISES. 91 



Of the four Rorquals, or Tinners, recorded from Brit- 

 ish waters, only two, the common and lesser, visit these 

 islands with any regularity. I have seen the 

 latter, which rarely exceeds a length of 30 

 feet, rounding up the pilchards off the Dodman near Meva- 

 gissey. The Common Rorqual is said to attain to a length 

 of 70 feet, and the rarer Sibbald's Rorqual, the largest of 

 them all, grows to 90. It has, however, occurred on our 

 coasts less than a dozen times. The fourth, Rudolfi's Ror- 

 qual, which rarely exceeds 50 feet in length, has also not 

 strayed to our waters more than half-a-dozen times, having 

 occurred mostly on the east coast of England. 



The Humpback Whale is found in summer on the 

 northern coasts. It is distinguished by the 

 hump on its back and by the fold of skin 

 along the throat. In colour this whale is black. 



The Cachalot is the toothed whale. It has no baleen ; 

 indeed, as already mentioned, it feeds chiefly on squid and 

 Cachalot cutt lefish. It is but a rare straggler to these 

 or Sperm islands. The head and body are of almost 

 Whale. equal length. In the lower jaw are some 

 twenty pairs of well - developed teeth, and some rudi- 

 mentary teeth are discernible in the upper. This whale 

 is recognisable by the swelling over the snout. It has a 

 rudimentary back-fin. 



Sowerby's Whale is easily distinguished by its long beak, 

 Sowerby's dorsal fin, and the two short teeth in the lower 

 Whale. jaw. It has been recorded a score of times in 

 the waters around these islands. 



The Bottlenose is not uncommon, especially on the 



_ north coast, and may be recognised by the 



Bottlenose.i ' J , , . ? 



truncated forehead and beak-like snout. It 



1 The " Bottlenose " of our south-coast watering-places is neither this 

 nor the true bottlenosed dolphin, but the common D. delphis. 



