. Natural history. Zoology. WHALES, PORPOISES, AND DOLPHINS. 173 the neck are thicker than in the right-whales, and mostly free from one another. In Itngth the female varies from 40 to 44 f c., but the male is rather smaller. The other members of the family are the humpback (ifegaptera) and the rorquals or finnera {BalKnoptera), in both of which the skin of the throat is marked by a number of longitudinal flutings or grooves, while the back carries a fin ; the whalebone being short and coarse, and usually of a yellowish colour. The vertebrae of the neck are of considerable thickness, and total
. Natural history. Zoology. WHALES, PORPOISES, AND DOLPHINS. 173 the neck are thicker than in the right-whales, and mostly free from one another. In Itngth the female varies from 40 to 44 f c., but the male is rather smaller. The other members of the family are the humpback (ifegaptera) and the rorquals or finnera {BalKnoptera), in both of which the skin of the throat is marked by a number of longitudinal flutings or grooves, while the back carries a fin ; the whalebone being short and coarse, and usually of a yellowish colour. The vertebrae of the neck are of considerable thickness, and totally separate. A Fi!J Whale (Balosnoptemy from one another ; and the tympanic bone of the internal ear is much more rounded and globular than in the right-whales, its shape somewhat recalling that of a large cowri shell. In the skeleton of the flippers the number of digits is reduced to four ; and the head is comparatively small in proportion to the body, with the palate but slightly arched, and the branches of the lower jaw little bowed outwards. Another character of the group, as compared with the right-whales, is the smaller degree of expansion of the tail-fin or flukes. From the finners, the single species of humpback {Megaptera hoops) is dis- tinguished by the relative shortness and depth of the body, which rises above the level of the baok-fin behind the shoulders, and likewise by the extra- ordinary length of the flippers, which is nearly one-fourth that of the entire animal. In length the female is about the same as the Greenland-whale. As a rule humpbacks have the flippers of a pure glistening white ; and when one of these animals is gambolling, as they often do, it will frequently lie on its side just below the surface of the water, so that the whole body is concealed. In this position one white flipper will be seen sticking straight up some 9 or 10 ft. above the water, and when first viewed from the deck of a passing vcissel appears a most extraordinary object, which m
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