130 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
at the anterior edge, which in the Common Rorqual is thick and 
rounded, while in Rudolphi’s Rorqual it is nearly as thin as the 
posterior edge. The longest flipper that I could find among the 
thirty odd pairs measured 7 ft. 6 in. to head of humerus. All 
the saleable portion of the baleen plates were black,* but the 
small inner portion of many of the plates were white, with from 
one to two inches of blue-grey between. The bristles would be 
more accurately described in this species as hair, being soft and 
fine, and quite white. The longest baleen plates measured 
about 31 in. by 12 in. A Rudolphi’s Rorqual may be distinguished 
from a Common Rorqual at a glance by the back being jet-black 
instead of grey-blue, and the white of the under side is much 
clearer, the whole skin having a fine silky appearance. The 
black of the upper side is not of a perfectly uniform tinge, but 
is here and there a shade less intense. This species is so small 
for the enormous harpoons in use, that I was assured that at 
least in one instance the harpoon passed right through the 
Whale, and the shell exploded on the other side! In the 
individual just described the harpoon was buried to the butt. 
The bone of the lower jaw of Rudolphi’s Rorqual is said to be 
harder than in either of the other species. The only foetus of 
this species found by Capt. Horn this season measured 59 ft. 
(Norwegian), on July 28th. The only example which I saw in 
its entirety was riding to a buoy, in which position I was unable 
to examine it closely. 
Captain Andreeff kindly gave me the following list of all the 
Whales taken by his steamers into Ara Bay this season; I have 
substituted the new style dates for the old style (by adding 
twelve days); the lengths are in feet, which he informed me 
were identical in Russia and England :— 
March 30. Common Rorqual. Female. Length, 614 ft. 
April 4. 5 5 Pe 502 ft. 
» 9 Bastard} Female. Length, 68 ft. 
» 29. a »  72ft., containing feetus, 3ft. 
4 in. long, ei 274 lbs. Rus. = about 221bs. Eng. 
May 6. Common Rorqual. Male. Length, 48 ft. 
* Prof. Collett has described the variations in the colouring of the plates 
very carefully in detail in the paper already mentioned. 
+ I have reckoned the ‘‘ Bastards’? as Common Rorquals in the table on 
page 136. 
