RORQUALS, OR FINNERS. 265 



Physalus latirostris. Flower, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1865, p. 28. 

 Cuvierius latirostris, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales Brit. Mus. 



p. 165 (1866). 



Cuvierius sibbaldii. Gray, op. cit., p. 380. 

 Balcenoptera sibbaldii. Bell, British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed. p. 



402 (1874); Southwell, British Seals and Whales, p. 75 



(1881); Flower, List Cetacea Brit. Mus. p. 6 (1885); 



Flower and Lydekker, Study of Mammals, p. 243 



(1891). 



Characters. Size very large; flippers relatively long, measuring 

 one-seventh of the total length ; back-fin small, and placed far 

 back; general colour dark bluish-grey, with a number of small 

 whitish spots on the breast ; whale-bone black. Total length 

 of adult from 80 to 85 feet. 



Distribution Sibbald's Rorqual, which is the largest of all 

 Whales, has a very wide distribution, although it does not range 

 so far south as some species. It has been split up into several 

 nominal species, such as the " Sulphur-Bottom " of the 

 American whalers. 



Although uncommon, several examples of this magnificent 

 Cetacean have been taken in British waters; the first specimen 

 on record being probably one stranded near Abercorn in the 

 year 1692, and described by Sibbald himself, although the speci- 

 fic determination is not absolutely free from doubt. A Whale 

 found floating dead in the North Sea, in 1827, which was towed 

 into Ostend, is likewise referred by Sir William Turner to the 

 present species ; and another example, of which the skeleton 

 is preserved in the Museum at Edinburgh, was found dead 

 near North Berwick in the autumn of 1831. More important 

 than all is a young specimen taken in the River Humber in the 

 year 1847, the skeleton of which is preserved in the Museum 

 qf the Literary and Philosophical Society of Hull, since it was 



