624 CLASS xvn. 



t With head enormous, equalling in Tnagnitude the third or fourth 

 part of the trunk. 



Balcena L. Transverse horny laminae adhering to the upper 

 jaw in place of teeth. Two spiracles distinct. 



The whales. The head is very large, making in some one-third of the 

 whole length. These animals may be named toothless cetaceans, although 

 in the state of embryo (as GEOFFROY SAINT-HILAIRE observed in Balcena 

 Mysticetus at the beginning of this century) teeth are present, which, from 

 the early ossification and coalescence of the groove in which they lie, do 

 not come to view, Ann. du Mus. x. pp. 364, 365. ESCHRICHT afterwards 

 confirmed this observation in various species, so that it may be regarded as 

 a generally prevalent embryonal state. Untersuchungen, B. 8591. 



Compare on this genus J. A. BENNETT Natuurl. Historic en Natuurk. 

 Beschrijving der Walvisschen in the Natuurk. Verhandelirtgen van de Maat- 

 schappijder Wetensch. te Haarlem, 1809, v. i, with PI. 



Sp. a) With back finless ; Balcena Mysticetus L., SCHREBER Saugeth. 

 Tab. 332, LACP. Cetac. PL I. fig. i, both from MARTEN'S Spitzbergische 

 oder Groenldndische Meise-Beschreibung, Hamburg, 1675, 4to, Taf. Q, fig. A, 

 SCORESBY 1. 1. PL is, fig. i, copied in SCHREBER Saugeth. 366, and Cuv. It. 

 Ani., ed. Hi., Mammif. PL 100, fig. i ; the Greenland whale, common 

 whale, la Baleine franche. This species attains a length of 60', and has the 

 longest baleen, on each side more than 300 pieces. Its food consists of 

 medusae, conchifers and molluscs, amongst which last especially of Clio 

 lorealis (see above, I. p. 775) and SpirateUa arctica (i. p. 774). The whale 

 fishery attained the greatest extension since the beginning of the seven- 

 teenth century, after the discovery of the island Spitzbergen 1 . On this 

 subject may be consulted ZORGDRAGER'S bloeijende opkomst der Groenlandsche 

 visscherij, 2e druk. 's Gravenhage, 1727, 4to, SCORESBY Account, &c. 2nd 

 Pt. and by the same Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale-fishery, 

 Edinb. 1823, 8vo. Another species without dorsal fin occurs on the south 

 coast of Africa and in the South Pacific and also at Japan, Balcena australis 

 DESMOULINS, Balcena capensis Cuv. ; see Heck, sur les ossem. foss. v. i, p. 

 374, PL 25, fig. i, 2, 5, 6, (cranium}, SCHLEGEL Faun. Japon., Mamm. 

 Taf. 28, 29. (Probably here also belongs BLUMENB. Abb. Naturh. Gegenst. 

 8vo, 91, from HESSEL GERARD Descriptio geograph. transitus supra terras 

 Americanos in Chinam), Diet, class. d'Hist. not. PL 140, fig. 3 (comp. 

 DESM. ibid. ii. 1822, p. 161). This species has a head of relatively 

 smaller size. On it affix themselves Balani (Tubicinella balcenarum, see 

 above I. p. 637), Coronula oalosnaris and species of Cyamus, of which 

 animals no one has ever been observed on the Greenland whale. 



b) Adipose Jin on the lack. Sub-genus Balcenoptera LAC. Belly marked 

 by longitudinal grooves. 



The fin-fishes (rorquals) are not on the whole objects of the regular 



1 In the memorable voyage of JACOB HEEMSKERK in 1596, when a part of the 

 company passed the winter in Nova Zembla. 



