4H WILD LIFE IX \K\V XKAI.AXD. 



that with the biggest dray-horse or the prize fat bullock at a 

 and then try to reali/e what a huge bulk ir is. 



The whalebone-whales are well represented in Xew Zealand 



waters, though individuals are now rare compared with their rela- 

 livt- abundance a century ago. A Xorwegi an company which 

 started operations on a large scale in the Xorth Island a few j 

 ago abandoned the enterprise after trying it for a year or two. 

 There was not enough money in if. Yet whalebone is enornioush 

 valuable it was worth 2,000 a ton twenty years ago. and, in spite 

 of numerous substitutes, it still keeps its place. 



The Fin-back, or Rorqual (Balaenopttrn ///N.SV/////.V), runs up 

 to 70ft. in length, and yet its food seems to consist chiefly of 

 small pelagic crustaceans belonging to the Copepoda. These little 

 creatures, which can be taken by a fine-mesh surface net at all 

 M-asons of the year, vary from one-tenth to one-fortieth of an inch 

 in length. It would be a somewhat difficult calculation to find 

 how many of these little creatures would be required to assuage 

 the appetite of a hungry whale. The whale has about 330 baleen 

 plates on each side of its jaw, and these act as strainers to catch 

 the little crustaceans. The production and destruction of incon- 

 ceivable myriads of organisms an- among the extraordinary and 

 awe-inspiring phenomena of the sea. 



Two other species of Balaenopfera are the Blue Whale (II. xiu- 

 fiii/f/it"), which has been taken S.~> ft. in length the giant of its race 

 and the Pike Whale (tt. ruxtrnfa), which seldom exceeds ''Oft. 



The Humpback Whale (.)/>;/>//>'> r<i lulu ml ii) is so called because 

 it has a lowish hump on its back, which represents the dorsal fin. 

 Its maximum length is probably 60ft. None of these whales, 

 which are species with a very wide geographical distribution, are 

 of much commercial value. 



Of the "right " whales which are merely the right kind of 

 whales for the whaler to pursue, as their whalebone is longer and 

 more valuable, and their oil more abundant and superior in 

 quality to that of the other species named the most important is 

 the. Southern Right Whale (Halm-mi (innf rn/in). This animal is 

 world-wide in its distribution, occurring in all seas but tin- 

 Arctic regions, where its place is taken by the Greenland Whale 

 (B. nti/xfirrfiix). 



