1. baljEna. 87 



breadtt ; the lips are firm and hard. The spout-holes are like two 

 sUts, which form an acute angle with each other. The eyes are very 

 small. The throat is so narrow as scarcely to admit a hen's egg. 

 The fins are from 4 to 5 feet broad and 8 or 10 feet long. Tail hori- 

 zontal, 20 or 30 feet wide. 



" The colour is dark grey and white, with a tinge of yellow on the 

 lower part of the head ; the back, upper part of the head, most of 

 the belly, the fins, tail, and under part of the jaws are deep black ; 

 the fore part, the under-jaw, and a little of the belly are white, 

 and the junction of the tail with the body grey. They are some- 

 times piebald. Under-sized whales are almost entirely pale bluish, 

 and the suckers are of a pale blackish colour. The blubber is from 

 10 to 20 inches thick." 



" Spiracles two, longitudinal, placed nearly parallel to each other 

 upon the top of the crown bone, about 14 feet from the tip of the lip j 

 they are about 6 inches long. Eyes on the sides, about 5 feet from 

 the crown bone and 16 feet from the tip of the Hp, and about 1 foot 

 above and rather behiad the angle of the mouth. The under-lip and 

 the throat white ; a broad white band extends across the abdomen, 

 between the male organ and the vent, which almost meets on the 

 back ; the middle part of the lower surface of the tail white ; on the 

 edges of these white patches are many black blotches, giving the 

 animal a piebald appearance. Length 46 feet, of fin 9 feet. Baleen 

 9| feet long."— Boss, Toy. of H.M.S. Isabella, ii. 152. 



The Nord Caper, Anderson, does not appear to differ from this 

 species. It is said to be thinner, and infested with barnacles ; this 

 would lead one to think that it was established on a specimen out of 

 health. Lacep^de's figures above cited, from a drawing by Back- 

 strom, communicated by Sir Joseph Banks, are the best figures of 

 the Eight Whale, after Scoresby's. 



A variety, or probably different species, is thus noticed by M. 

 Guerin, the surgeon of a whaler, as the Eock-nosed Whale. It is 

 said " never to leave the coast, and even to make the circuit of the 

 bays. The most important point (of difference) is the comparative 

 size of the head and body. The head is always considerably more 

 than 1, while in the true B. Mysticetus, as stated by Scoresby, it is 

 less than \, or as 16 to 51. The whalebone is longer in comparison 

 to the length of the animal, but the laminaa are thinner for their 

 length ; the body is broader and terminates more abruptly ; the skin 

 is dark velvet-brown, and has fewer spots and 3rields less oil. The 

 whalers in general seem to think that it is merely a difference of age 

 that causes this difference in their external characters, but cubs or 

 Bucklers are as often found amongst the Eock-noses as amongst the 

 Middle-Ice Whales ; the former must have attained the age of 

 maturity." — Cfuerin, in Jameson's W. Edin. Phil. Journ. 1845, 267. 



In some individuals the baleen is yellowish white, the fibres and 

 enamel of a pale colour. 



There is the stuffed skin of a foetal specimen, 29 inches long, from 

 Mr. F. J. Knox's Collection, in the Anat. Mus. Univ. Edinb. ; the lower 

 lips have a broad £ap, which is to cover the baleen when developed. 



