392 BAL^NOPTERID^. 



GET ACE A. BAL^NOPTEJilD^. 



\mystacoceti.) 



Genus Megaptera (Gray, 1844). 



Generic Oharacter. — Skin of tliroat and belly plaited ; a low obtuse dorsal 

 fin ; flippers very long, equalling a fourth or even a third of the whole length, 

 their edges undulated ; lips marked by a row of tubercles ; head broad and 

 flat. Cervical vertebrse usually free, acromion of scapular absent or rudi- 

 mentary. 



HUMP-BACKED WHALE. 

 Megaptera longimana (Rudolphi). 



Specific Character. — Black above, varied black and white below; flippers 

 wholly white; baleen black. Vertebra 63, ribs 14 pairs. Length of adult 

 about 50 feet. 



Balcbna loSps, Fabkioius (nee Linn.) Fauna Grcenl. (1790), 36. 



,, Icmgimana, Kudolphi, Mem. Ace. Berl., 1829, 133. 

 . Megaptera ,, J. E. Gray, Zool. Erebus and Terror (1844), I., 17. 



Kyphobakma boSps, Esohkioht, Nord. WaUthiere (1849), 146. 

 Keporlcak of Greenlanders. Puchelkval of Swedes. 



The Hump-backs and Rorquals or Fin-Whales con- 

 stitute the family BalcenopteridcB , distinguished by the 

 longitudinal plaits or folds which mark the skin of their 

 throats and bellies, and by the possession of a dorsal fin. 

 In this family the head is relatively smaller than in the 

 Right-Whales, and the jaws are less arched, the baleen 

 is short and twisted, the vertebraj of the neck are usually 

 separate, and the flipper has only four fingers. The 



