Waite — Two Australasian Blue ^^'HALEs 



Length of sternum 

 Breadth of sternum 

 Length of scapula 

 Height of scapula 



Skin. — \ ery soon after a dead whale is stranded, the thin epidermis dries 

 and peels off, leaving no trace of the actual colour or markings of the skin. 

 I was sufficiently early on the scene at Corvisart Bay to see much of the 

 skin intact, especially where it had been kept moist by the waves or spray. 

 The actual colour of the skin on the back and sides is black or nearly so, but 

 it is marked with closely set, light-coloured, irregularly radiating streaks, 

 which arise from white patches. Some of the streaks anastomose with those 

 from an adjoining centre, and the general eft'ect when seen from a little 

 distance is to produce a bluish tinge, whence the name "blue whale" is 

 derived. The accompanying photograph (PI. xxiii, fig. 2) illustrates the con- 

 dition described. At that part of the body shown on one corner of the 

 picture the surface skin had peeled off, and with it disappeared the peculiar 

 markings, which are purely ejMdermal. It might be assumed from the photo- 

 graph that the surface of the body is irregular; this effect, however, is due 

 entirely to the markings, for the skin is absolutely smooth and shiny except 

 where denuded of the epidermis. 



Baleen. — As previously mentitmed, the whalebone of one — the right — 

 side of the head was intact; its position in the mouth is shown in the photo- 

 graph (PI. xxii, fig. 2). It must be borne in mind that as the animal was 

 lying on its back, it is the upper jaw that is awash, and the picture should be 

 reversed to realize how the baleen depends from the mouth. The colour of 

 the whalebcnie, including the bristles, is black. The plates number about 

 330 on each side, the length uf the longest, measured along the outer edge, is 

 812 mm., that of the longest bristle 406 mm. 



Running along the whole inner side of the main series is a narrower set, 

 formed, not of wide plates, but of strips, the largest of which measure 25 mm. 

 in width. This auxiliary set of plates, nowhere more than 178 mm. in length, 

 is free from the main series except at the base, where it forms, at its area of 

 attachment to the roof of the mouth, a characteristic pattern, somewhat like 

 the radiator of an automobile, but with the components directed obliquely, so 

 that the rows are successively lost. The condition is well shown in the 

 accompanying photograph (PI. xxiii, fig. 3). I presume the term "inter- 



