Balj:na. 
MAMMALIA. CETACEA. 
33 
B. Bach destitute of a protuberance or fin. 
Gen. XXXI. BAL^NA. Whale.— U pper lip whiskered. 
Head large. 
48. B. Mysticetus. Common Whale. Gape of the mouth 
arched. 
Scoresby^s Arct. Reg. i. 449. tab. xii. 
The intelligent author whom we have now quoted, and whose figure is the 
only one worth quoting, considers a full grown whale of the ordinary size as 
not exceeding 60 feet in length, and 40 feet in circumference, and as weighing 
about 70 tons, the blubber 30 tons. The upper jaw, including the crown bone 
or skull, is bent down at the extremity so far as to shut the front and upper 
parts of the cavity of the mouth, and is overlapped by the lips in a squamous 
manner at the sides.” The swimmers are placed about 2 feet behind the angle 
of the mouth. The tail reaches to 26 feet in breadth. Laminae of baleen 300 
in number in each series, and sometimes 15 feet in length 5 the whole weighing 
a ton and half. A slight beard, consisting of a few short scattered white 
hairs, surmounts the anterior extremity of both jaWs. Its food consists of 
small marine insects. Sir Charles Giesecke (Article Greenland^ Ed. En. x. 
499.) states the length of a female, killed in the spring of 1813, at 67 feet- 
Another killedin 1811, measured as follows : “From the centre of the mouth 
to the point of the tail 56 feet. From the point of the under lip to the root 
of the fins, 23^ feet. From the fins to the point between the two lobes or 
wings of the tail 33 feet. The length of the head was 18 feet. From the 
middle point of the upper lip to the blowholes 16| feet. The length of one 
of the fins 8 feet 4 inches. The thickness of a fin, on its thickest part, 1 foot 
9 inches. The breadth of the tail from one extremity of its wings to the 
other, 22 feet 7 inches. The length of one of the blowholes 1 1 inches. There 
were thirteen ribs on each side.” 
Sibbald (Fhal. p. 65.) states, that an individual of this species came ashore 
j near Peterhead in 1682, and measured 70 feet. The species referred to by 
I Willoughby (Ichthyologia, p. 37.), as having come ashore at Tynemouth, was 
I probably a Physalis, as it is stated to have been 30 yards in length, and to 
I have had 30 ribs. 
j Though the whale appears formerly to have been frequently met with in. 
I our seas, yet now, when the fishery is prosecuted with zeal and success, and 
I the geographical limits of the species, in consequence, greatly reduced, it scarce- 
ly merits a place among British animals, as it occurs only at distant intervals 
as a straggler. 
i I. Palate destitute of baleen. Furnished with teeth ^ external 
orifice of the blow-hole single. 
A. Blow-hole double^ being divided within by a bony sep^ 
turn. 
a. Teeth ^ numerous^ in both jaws. 
Gen. XXXII. DELPHINUS. Dolphin.— -A dorsal fin. 
Destitute of a caecum. 
1. Snout short and blunt. Phoccena (fC\xv. 
49 . D. Phoccena. Porpess. — Teeth compressed and oblique. 
Sibb. Scot. 23. — Will. Ich. p. 31 — Borl. Corn. p. 264. tab. xxvii. f. 2 
Monro, Phys. Fishes, p, 45. tab. Fleming, Phil. Zool. ii. p. 209 
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