EIGHT WHALES. 71 



indeed, is the size of the mouth in these whales that its 

 capacity actually exceeds that of the whole of the other 

 cavities of the body ; and yet the size of the throat is so 

 small as almost to justify the common nautical saying that 

 a herring will choke a whale. There are but two well- 

 defined species of right whales, viz., the Greenland or 

 Arctic whale (B. mysticetus), and the southern right 

 whale (B. australis), the latter of which was nearly 

 exterminated some centuries ago in the Atlantic by the 

 Basque whalers, while the former is only too likely to share 

 the same fate at the hands of their modern successors in 

 the Arctic seas. Of the two, the Greenland whale is 

 decidedly the more specialized, having a much larger head 

 and longer whalebone, and is in this respect facile princeps 

 among its tribe ; although, as it only measures from forty- 

 five to fifty feet in length, it is inferior in point of size to 

 the rorquals. The skeletons of both these whales are cha- 

 racterized by the whole of the vertebrae of the neck being 

 welded together into a solid mass ; and the same feature 

 is exhibited by those of the pigmy whale (Neobalana) of the 

 southern seas, which, as already mentioned, is a mere 

 dwarf among giants, as it does not exceed some twenty feet 

 in total length. Agreeing also with the right whales in 

 its smooth throat, the pigmy whale differs by having a 

 small hook-like fin on the back, while its long and elastic 

 whalebone is white instead of black. Far larger than 

 the last, the great grey whale of the Pacific (Rhachiancctes) 

 forms a kind of connecting link between the right whales 

 and the rorquals, having the smooth throat and finless 

 back of the former, while its whalebone is even shorter 

 and coarser than in the latter ; the palate consequently is 

 but little vaulted, and the entire head smaller in proportion 

 to the body. 



The remaining whales of this group are divided into hump- 

 backs (Megaptera) and rorquals or finners (Balcenoptera) ; 

 both of which are characterized by the presence of a 

 number of parallel groovings or flutings in the skin of the 

 throat, as well as of a back-fin (whence their name of 

 finners or fin-whales), and also by the shortness and 

 coarseness of their whalebone, which is generally of a 



