Baleen Whales ; Lesser Rorquals. 38 



Still more recently, viz. : in August, 1898, Birchington came 

 in for an unwelcome piece of flotsam in the dead body of what at 

 first was supposed to be a Greenland whale ; but it turned out 

 to be a sperm whale, 42 J feet long. The coastguard took posses- 

 sion, but gladly got rid of it for a trifle to a local party, who 

 sold it to a Ramsgate man for 5. An exhibition was at- 

 tempted, but the weather being unusually warm the carcass 

 soon became unbearable. After a ludicrous attempt to burn 

 the body, Mr. Gerrard, a London taxidermist, relieved the 

 District Council from an awkward position by cutting up the 

 monster and reserving the bones for a skeleton. In this case 

 the valuable blubber and spermaceti oil were lost, as also the 

 chance of obtaining some of the still more precious ambergris 

 a marked contrast to the 1762 specimens. 



As is well known, the main food of the cachalot is cuttle- 

 fish, various species. One caught on the Cornwall coast had 

 300 mackerel in its stomach ; whilst South Sea whalers aver 

 that other fish, even sharks, are indulged in. 



Baleen Whales. Three different species are acknowledged 

 as occasionally straying into our district. All three belong to 

 the group named Rorquals or Finners, These have a small 

 back fin, besides throat furrows or corrugated belly-skin, thus 

 differing from the smooth-bellied Greenland whale, which, 

 moreover, has no back fin. The whalebone of the Rorquals it 

 should be noted, is relatively short, their blubber thin and 

 always fibrous, and less oily than in the Greenland animal ; 

 hence the very greatly diminished value of the former's carcass. 

 The Rorquals are rather of a solitary, migratory habit, yet ex- 

 ceedingly active sea-roamers, and they swallow fishes by the 

 hundreds, or strain through their bristle-fringed whalebone 

 diminutive pelagic crustaceans (Copepods) and tiny jelly-fish in 

 multitudes. 



(1.) The LESSER RORQUAL, or Piked Whale (Balcenoptera 

 rosraa),has been got in several localities in our district. A 

 specimen probably of this species, but full grown, is chronicled 



c 



