WHALES 391 



Americans and the Russians. Its wanderings appear 

 to be both wide and regular, from the Sea of Ochotsk 

 through the " Kadiak Ground," off the Alaskan coast 

 southward to Oregon. Scammon gives a vivid account 

 of the whale fishery in these seas. Here again the 

 specific distinctness of this whale is by no means 

 certain, and we may take it that it is at least very 

 closely akin to our Biscayan Whale. It is at all times 

 a difficult matter to identify with certainty the whales 

 caught by the whale fishers, save in those cases where 

 the whales are " flensed " ashore, under circumstances 

 where bones and other specimens are likely to be 

 collected and preserved. Thus some of the Dundee 

 whaling captains are of opinion that any Right 

 Whales which they occasionally get to the eastward 

 of Greenland belong, not to the true Greenland Whale 

 or Bowhead, but to what they call the Right Whale, 

 and we call the Biscayan Whale. Indeed, it is an open 

 question what species was the chief object of the great 

 Spitzbergen fishery, and I am inclined to think it is 

 not at all unlikely that the Atlantic or Biscayan Whale 

 formed a great part of the catch. 



The family Mystacoceti contains one other species 

 very distinct from the rest ; this is the Pigmy Whale 

 (Neobalaena marginata), a rare animal known only from 

 the South Australian and New Zealand seas. It is 

 but little known, and appears to be a link between the 

 present family and the next ; it is only about 16 feet 

 long. 



The Balaenopteridae, including the Rorquals or Finner 

 Whales and a few others, are Whalebone Whales of 

 large size, resembling the former family in general 

 structure and habits, but with shorter whalebone and 

 smaller heads ; there is a dorsal fin, and the skin of 

 the throat is curiously pleated or furrowed in long 



