WHALES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION 15 



the whaling stations in Scotland and Ireland and 

 from a return of stranded Cetacea published 

 annually by the British Museum. 1 



The Cetacea are divided into two sub-orders: the 

 Mystacoceti the Whalebone or True Whales; and 

 the Odontoceti the Toothed Whales. (We are not 

 concerned with extinct forms). 



The Mystacoceti are distinguished by the absence 

 of teeth, the presence of baleen or " whalebone," 

 the form and size of the mouth, a symmetrical skull, 

 a distinctly developed olfactory organ, and other 

 pecularities which may be ascertained in any work 

 on comparative anatomy. The essential character- 

 istic is that the palate carries two longitudinal 

 series of transverse horny plates, with their free 

 edges frayed out into a hair-like fringe, forming a 

 uniform mat-like surface during life. 



Lydekker enumerates five genera and nine 

 species of Whalebone Whales, and of these seven 

 species are (or were) sufficiently abundant to be the 

 objects of commercial exploitation. 



For practical purposes Neobalczna marginata, a 

 small whale of Australian and New Zealand 

 waters, and Rhachianectes glaucus, the Grey 

 Whale of the North Pacific, may be ignored, the 

 former from its small size (under twenty feet), the 

 latter from its rarity. 2 



1 British Museum (Natural History), " Report on Cetacea 

 stranded on the British Coasts," by S. F. Harmer. Seven parts 

 issued up to ig2i, i.e., for years ig 14-20. 



2 But see " Present Condition of the Californian Grey Whale 

 Fishery," by C. H. Townsend, U.S. Fish. Comm. Bull . Vol vi 

 for 1836-87. (See aflso p. 253.) 



