214 MAMMALIA. 
enormous animals feed exclusively on very small Mollusca, 
which abound, it is true, inthe seas they inhabit. Their excre- 
ment is of a beautiful red colour, and affords a tolerable die.(1) 
Other species (Barznorrera, Lacep.).have a dorsal fin: they are 
also again subdivided into such as have a smooth belly, and those in 
which it is wrinkled. The 
BAaLznoprera, with a smooth belly, 
Are closely allied to the Whales proper. ‘One only is cited, the 
| Balena physalus, Finnfisch of the Hollanders ; copied from 
Martens by Anderson, Bonnaterre, and others ; Lacep. I, fig. ii. 
(The Gibbar.) As long as the Common Whale, but more 
slender ; very common in the same latitudes, but shunned by the 
fishermen on account of its extreme ferocity, and the paucity of 
its oil; to capture it is a difficult, and for small vessels a danger- 
_ ous undertaking, on account of the violence of its motions when 
attacked. It is far from certain that it is not a Jubarta, whose 
name has been corrupted. The 
BaLzyoptera, with a wrinkled belly, or Rorquats,(2) 
Have the skin of the underpart of the throat and chest folded longi- 
tudinally into plice, forming very deep wrinkles, and consequently 
susceptible of great dilatation, the use of which is unknown. It 
appears that the seas of Europe contain two species. 
Bal boops, L.; Jubarte of the Biscayans; Lacep. I, f. 3,— 
IV, f. land 2,—V, f. 1, and VIII, 1 and 2. (The Jubarta.) 
Superior in length to the Common Whale, but has all the 
dangerous propensities of the Gibbar. 
Bal, musculus, Lin.; Lacep. pl. vi and vii. (The Rorqual of 
the Mediterranean.) Which only differs from the Ananaia in 
some of the details of its proportions.(2) 
(1) It is from an erroneous interpretation of certain passages of Martens and 
Zorgdrager, that naturalists have made a peculiar species of the Nord-Caper, which 
should be a northern whale more slender than the common one ; but in the Antarc- 
tic Seas there isa species very similar to the Common Whale, which the Hollanders 
of the Cape also call Nord-Caper. See Oss. Foss. p. 361, 363. 
(2) Rorgual, whale with tubes, from its plice. 
(3) The Balena rostrata of Hunter, of Fabricius and of Bonnaterre, or the Boops, 
is very different from that of Pennant and of Pontoppidan, which is the HrrEznoo- 
DON. ; 
The Balzna gibbosa and the gibbosa B. or nodosa of Bonnaterre, should be better 
determined; but they are only known through Dudley, Phil. Trans. 387, and 
we are not sure they were preciselgpin theirnatural state. See Oss. Foss. loc. cit. 
