26o LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



we accordingly at once pass on to the consideration of such 

 members of the Family as habitually, or from time to time, visit 

 the neighbourhood of the British Islands. 



THE RIGHT WHALES. GENUS BAL^NA. 



Balcenay Linn., Syst. Nat. ed. 12, vol. i. p. 105 (1766). 



Whale-bone Whales of large size, in which the skin of the 

 throat is smooth, the back-fin absent, the flippers broad and 

 short, the head of enormous size, the whale-bone very long, 

 narrow, highly elastic, and black in colour, and all the verte- 

 brae of the neck immovably welded together. So far as 

 can be ascertained, the genus includes only two well-defined 

 species. 



THE SOUTHERN RIGHT WHALE. BAL^ENA AUSTRALIS. 



JBalcena australis, Desmoulins, Diet. Class. d'Hist. Nat. vol. ii. 



p. 161 (1822). 

 Balcena biscayensis^ Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 200; Bell, 



British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed. p. 387 (1874); Southwell, 



Bnlish Seals and Whales, p. 62 (1881). 

 Madeayius briffa?iicus, Gray, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. vi. p. 



198 (1870). 



Characters. — Distinguished from the Greenland Right Whale 

 {B, mystacetus) by its relatively smaller head, shorter whale- 

 bone, the different contour of the margin of the lower lip, and 

 the greater number of ribs (15 instead of 12). The size is 

 also stated to be somewhat less; and there is a marked 

 difference in the form of the tympanic bone of the internal 

 ear. In colour, this Whale appears to be wholly black, instead 

 of having whit^. on the lower lip, and at the roots of the flippers 

 and flukes. 



Distribution.— Although they have received distinct specific 



