686 MANUAL OF ZOOLOGY. 



the skin is furrowed and a dorsal fin is present (as in the so- 

 called Finner Whales and Hump-backed Whales). 



The Greenland or ' ' Right " Whale (Bal&na mysticetus) will illustrate 

 almost all the leading points of interest in the family. The Greenland 

 Whale is the animal which is sought after in the whale-fishery of Europe, 

 and hence the name of "Right" Whale often applied to it. It is an 

 inhabitant of the arctic seas, and reaches a length of from forty to sixty 

 feet. Of this enormous length, nearly one-third is made up of the head, 

 so that the eye looks as if it were placed nearly in the middle of the body. 

 The skin is completely smooth, and is destitute of hairs in the adult. The 

 fore -limbs are converted into "flippers" or swimming -paddles, but the 

 main organ of progression is the tail, which often measures from twenty 

 to twenty- five feet in breadth. The mouth is of enormous size, the upper 

 jaw much narrower than the lower, and both completely destitute of teeth. 

 Along the middle of the palate runs a strong keel, bordered by two lateral 

 depressions, one on each side. Arranged transversely in these lateral 

 depressions are an enormous number of horny plates, constituting what is 

 known as the "baleen" plates, from which the whalebone of commerce 

 is derived. The arrangement of the plates of baleen is as follows (fig/ 

 383) : Each plate is triangular in shape, the shortest side or base being 

 deeply sunk in the palate. The outer edge of the plate is nearly straight, 

 and is quite unbroken. The inner edge is slightly concave, and is fur- 

 nished with a close fringe formed of detached fibres of whalebone. For 

 simplicity's sake each baleen-plate has been regarded here as a single plate, 

 but in reality each plate is composed of several pieces, of which the outer- 

 most is by far the largest, whilst the others gradually decrease in size 

 towards the middle line of the palate. The large marginal plates are from 

 eight to ten or more feet in length, and there may be over one hundred on 

 each side of the mouth. 



The object of the whole series of baleen-plates with which the palate is 

 furnished, is as follows : The Whale is a strictly carnivorous or zoophagous 

 animal, but owing to the absence of teeth and the comparatively small 

 calibre of the oesophagus, it lives upon very diminutive animals. The 

 Whale, in fact, lives mostly upon the shoals of small Pteropodous Molluscs, 

 Crustacea, Ctenophora and Medusa, which swarm in the arctic seas. To 

 obtain these, the whale swims with the mouth opened, and thus fills the 

 mouth with an enormous mass of water. The baleen - plates have the 

 obvious function of a ' ' screening apparatus. " The water is strained 

 through the numerous plates of baleen, and all the minute animals which 

 it contains are arrested and collected together by the inner fibrous edges 

 of the baleen- plates. When, by a repetition of this process, the Whale 

 has accumulated a sufficient quantity of food within the central cavity of 

 the mouth, it is enabled to swallow it, without taking the water at the 

 same time. 



We have now to speak of a phenomenon which has given rise to a con- 

 siderable amount of controversy namely, what is known as the "blow- 

 ing" or "spouting" of the whale. In all the Cetaceans the nose opens 

 by a single or double aperture (the latter in the Balanidce) upon the top 

 of the head, and these external apertures or nostrils are known as the 

 "blow-holes" or "spiracles." The act known to the whalers as "blow- 

 ing," consists in the expulsion from the blow-holes of a jet of what is 

 apparently water, or at any rate looks like it. This act is performed by 

 the whale upon rising to the surface, and it is usually by this that the 

 whereabouts of the animal is discovered. The old view as to what takes 

 place in the act of blowing is, that the whale is really occupied in getting 



