Sub-Order MYSTACOCETI— THE WHALEBONE 



WHALES 



Family BAL^NID^. 

 Genus Balaena. 



THE ATLANTIC RIGHT WHALE. 



Balcena australis, Desmoulins. 

 Plate 42. 



The Atlantic Right Whale or Nordcaper, known to the French as 

 Sarde, measures over 50 feet when fully grown. 



According to Professor D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson, C.B., F.R.S. 

 {Scottish tH^turalist^ Sept. 191 8), of sixty-seven specimens captured and 

 brought into the Scottish Whaling Stations during the years from 1908 to 

 1 9 14, the smallest measured 31 feet and the largest 59 feet, but it is 

 not certain whether these measurements were taken along the curve of the 

 animals' bodies or in a straight line. The average girth of twenty-two 

 specimens was about 32 feet. 



Outwardly this Whale chiefly differs from the Greenland Right Whale 

 in having a smaller head, shorter and thicker baleen, while the curved 

 margin of the lower lip follows a different line. 



Along the top of the upper jaw, which slopes steeply from where the blow 

 holes are placed in the crown, is a rough horny mass known as the ' bonnet.' 



The head is large, measuring about one fourth of the animal's entire 

 length, the body short and thick- set with no dorsal fin, and tapering 

 rapidly towards the tail. 



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