BRITISH MAMMALS 



rise to 53.8 per cent, of those of 60 feet and over, to 

 82.3 per cent, of those of 70 feet and over, and the only 

 two over 80 feet were females. The season stretches 

 from April to September, but July and August are the 

 months for the largest catches. The catches are chiefly 

 made west of St. Kilda and north of the Shetlands. 

 Though generally considered a fish-eater, Mr. R. C. 

 Haldane says of the Finner that it only takes to herrings 

 when it cannot get its favourite kril and shrimps, and that 

 in some years they seem to be " entirely shrimp-fed." 

 A Finner 60 feet long has a girth of 23 feet. A Bottle- 

 nose, full grown, of 30 feet in length, would measure 

 20 feet in girth, proportions very different from those of 

 the Finner. Only twenty Bottle-noses were landed at 

 Scottish stations in the period under review. This 

 species has, therefore, become unimportant in the 

 economic sense, so far as Scottish fisheries are concerned 

 nowadays. It was, however, not so long since an im- 

 portant object of Norwegian fishermen, and was hunted 

 for its oil of fine quality, for its spermaceti ; perhaps 

 also for its skin for leather, and, it is also said, for " the 

 ambergris, or a variety thereof, contained in its intestine, 

 and formed, doubtless, as also in the Cachalot, as a by- 

 product of the digestion of its cuttlefish food," 



Lesser Rorqual — The Rorquals are called Finner 

 Whales because of the possession of a dorsal fin, and one 

 member of the genus (Sibbald's Rorqual) is the largest 

 existing mammal on land or sea, attaining a maximum 



length of about 100 feet. The Lesser Rorqual rarely 

 120 



