26 THE fcRixisH MAMMALS : THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 



screen, and by closing the jaws and raising the tongue the whale 

 drives out the water through the hairy fringes, and thereby cap- 

 tures the fishes, molluscs, and crustaceans on which it feeds. It 



BISCAY WHALE. 

 (Balana aiistmlis.) 



was this Biscay, or Southern Right, Whale, that was hunted by the 

 Basques over a thousand years ago. The speed of the right whales 

 does not exceed four knots an hour, except when diving. The baby 

 whale there is but one at a time is from ten to fourteen feet long. 



Balsenoptera. Plates xx. and xxi. GET ACE A. 



55. sibbaldii, SIBBALD'S RORQUAL. Flippers black above, white 



below ; body bluish grey above, under parts yellowish. 



56. musculus, COMMON RORQUAL. Flippers black above, white 



below ; body slate grey above, under parts white ; 

 lower jaw grey on left side and white on right side. 



57. borealis, NORTHERN RORQUAL. Flippers black both above and 



below. 



58. rostrata, LESSER RORQUAL. Flippers black above, banded 



with white. 



Sibbald's Rorqual, otherwise the Blue Whale, is the largest 

 animal now living, its length being eighty-five feet, or even more, the 

 specimen that drifted ashore in the Hebrides in the Jubilee year 

 having measured ninety feet. The records of the occasional appear- 

 ances of this species in British waters begin more than two hundred 

 years ago. Like all the Rorquals, it has rather a small head, the 

 throat expanded when feeding is grooved in repose, a small but 

 well-developed dorsal fin rises from ths hinder third of the back, and 



