WHALES AND DOLPHINS 309 



these whales were seen at comparatively close quarters off Ross's Great Ice-Barrier 

 on 28th January 1902, and four others on 8th February of the same year. They 

 are described as being black above, with a certain amount of white on the chin ; 

 their length is estimated at between 20 and 30 feet, while the height of the 

 narrow, upright, back-fin, forming the most characteristic feature of the species, 

 appeared to be between 3 and 4 feet. This fin curves slightly backwards, 

 although in one apparently abnormal individual the direction of the curve was 

 forwards. These whales were noticed to be slow swimmers, and as they rose to 

 the surface the 'spout' became noticeable just as the top of the back-fin made its 

 appearance above the water. Immediately afterwards the short and blunt muzzle 

 was exposed. That these whales, which not improbably belong to the whalebone 

 group, indicate an undescribed species and genus seems practically beyond 

 doubt. 



Another, and at the same time a perfectly well-known, Antarctic cetacean is 

 the pigmy whale (Neobalcena marginata), which is the sole representative of its 

 genus, and attains a length of not more than about 20 feet, and is thus one of the 

 smallest of the whalebone-whales. The head does not exceed about one quarter 

 the entire length of the animal, the throat is devoid of the longitudinal grooves, or 

 pleatings, characteristic of the rorquals, but there is a small, sickle-shaped back -fin, 

 and the flippers are relatively short. The number of dorsal vertebra? is seventeen 

 or eighteen, which is greater than in any other species of whale ; and the seventeen 

 pairs of ribs are unusually broad and flat. The seven vertebras of the neck are 

 fused together, as in the Greenland and other right-whales. For the size of the 

 head the whalebone, which is white and flexible, is relatively long, although not of 

 sufficient length to be of much, if any, commercial value. The species has a wide 

 distribution in the southern ocean, occurring off the Australian as well as the 

 South American coasts. 



A representative of the black right-whale of the northern Atlantic (Balcena 

 glacialis, or B. biscayensis) is found in the southern seas, but whether it constitutes 

 a species by itself (B. australis), or whether it is merely a local race of the former, 

 is a question not yet definitely decided. 



Rorquals or tinners, apparently identical with the European Balcenoptera 

 musculus and the still more gigantic B. sibbaldi — the biggest of living animals — 

 as well as some of the smaller species, visit the Falklands, the South Shetlands, 

 South Georgia, and other parts of the sub- Arctic in thousands. As these whales 

 have been already referred to in the chapter on the fauna of the northern seas, it 

 need only be mentioned here that they are the " clipper-built " racers of their tribe, 

 and that their whalebone, owing to its shortness, is of comparatively small value, 

 so that they are mainly hunted for the sake of their other products. The nature 

 of their food varies according to season and opportunity. The common rorqual 

 (B. musculus) is known, for instance, to feed largely on smelts, herrings, and other 

 small fishes, but in August it has been found feeding, in company with the blue 

 rorqual (B. sibbaldi), off the coast of Mayo on the small shrimps known as 

 Meganyctiphanes norvegica. In spring the blue rorqual is reported to feed entirely 

 on the small crustacean named Euphausia, or Rhoda, inermis. The smallest, 

 Rudolphi's rorqual (B. borealis), on the other hand, is stated to feed entirely on 



