WHALES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION 19 



Whale Balcznoptera sibbaldi) is the largest of all 

 living creatures. It attains a length of eighty or even 

 eighty-five feet. It spends, like the other species of 

 the Rorqual, the winter in the open sea, approaching 

 the land at the end of April or beginning of May. 



The Common Rorqual or Finner (Balcznoptera 

 musculus) grows to seventy feet, and is the 

 commonest of all the large whales on the British 

 coasts. It feeds on fish, and is frequently seen 

 among the herring shoals. 



Rudolphi's Rorqual or the Sei Whale (Balcenop- 

 tera borealis) is a smaller edition to the common 

 Finner, attaining -a length of from thirty-eight to 

 fifty feet. Until recently it was considered the 

 rarest of European whales, but in 1906 no less than 

 three hundred and twenty-six specimens of this 

 species were taken by the whalers in Scottish waters. 



Hundreds of Rorquals are annually captured in 

 British waters (see Appendix V), and every year 

 specimens are stranded on our coasts. 



The sub-order of the Odontoceti comprises the 

 toothed whales, in which calcified teeth are always 

 present after birth. These teeth are generally 

 numerous, though in some cases only a few are 

 present. There is no baleen or whale " bone." 

 The upper surface of the skull is more or less 

 asymmetrical. The olfactory organ is rudimentary 

 or absent. For details of the anatomical differences 

 between this and the preceding sub-order of the 

 Mystacoceti a textbook on Comparative Anatomy, 

 such as Flower and Lyddeker, should be consulted. 



