BAL^ENOPTERA INDICA. 161 



Fam. BAL^ENID^E. 



Head enormous ; spiracle double ; no teeth, but transverse horny 

 laminae adhering to the upper jaw; forming the baleen or whalebone. 

 Conical teeth are found in the foetal state. They possess a caecum. 



Whales are the largest of all known animals, some being nearly 100 

 feet in length. They produce one young at a birth, which they suckle 

 for a considerable time. Their mamrnse are pudendal. They are often 

 found in large shoals sporting on the surface of the ocean. They are 

 most abundant in high latitudes, both arctic and antarctic. They feed 

 on small fish, cuttle-fish, otKer mollusca, and small Crustacea. The 

 whalebone or baleen sometimes, in large whales, consisting of six 

 hundred to eight hundred plates 12 to 15 feet long, forms a regular 

 sieve through which the animal strains his food from the vast gulps of 

 water he takes in whilst feeding. The lower jaw has neither teeth nor 

 baleen, but is furnished with fleshy lips. 



The skull is characterized by the great predominance of the facial 

 over the cranial portions, and the curvature of the rami of the lower 

 jaw, which extend outwards in a convex sweep far beyond the sides of 

 the upper maxilla, and converge to the symphysis, but do not unite. 

 The only Indian species of the family belongs to a group possessing a 

 dorsal fin, and hence called Finner, Finback, Fin-whale, &c. ; also 

 Pike- whale, Rorqual. 



Gen. BAL.ENOPTERA, Lacepede. 



Char. Those of the family, but with an adipose fin on the back ; 

 belly marked by longitudinal grooves. Head about one-fourth of total 

 length. 



They feed on small fishes, and are found in all seas, tropical as well as 

 cold. The largest animals of the family belong to this genus. 



147. Balsenoptera indica. 



BLYTII, J. A. S. XXVIII. 488 j Cat. 288. 



THE INDIAN FIN-WHALE. 



Descr. A whale supposed to be of this species was thrown ashore on 

 the Chittagong coast, said to be 90 feet long and 42 in circumference. 

 Another was cast up dead at Amherst Islet, 84 feet in length. Of this 



M 



