OCR Text |
Show 246 MR. R. COLLETT ON BAL^NOPTERA BOREALIS. [Feb. 2, coast from Soroen, near Hammerfest, to Jarfjord in Syd Varanger, and on the Murman coast at least to Kildin. When, during a stay in the Varangerfjord in the month of July, I ascertained that specimens of B. borealis were daily brought into the factories at Vardo, I at once proceeded to that place, and in the course of a couple of days I had an opportunity of examining tbe external characters of six specimens, three males and three females, whilst I saw double that number towed in, but want of time prevented my examining them. Two drawings of this species have previously been produced. According to Van Beneden and Gervais (Osteogr. des Cet. p. 201) the first known specimen of this whale (Zuyder-Zee, 1811) was figured, but these authors are unable to explain the fate of this figure, which never seems to have been published. Another figure was given of Rudolphi's specimen (Holstein, 1819) in a lithograph published in Hamburg, 1819 ; this figure is copied in Brandt and Ratzeburg's ' Medicinische Zoologie' (B. 1. tab. xv. fig. 3) ; it is, however, very imperfect and confusing \ As our knowledge of this species is thus still very meagre, I have thought it right to give the principal results of m y researches at the factories at Vardo and Mehavn this year, although I am well aware that m y observations, based as they are upon only two days' studies on the spot, are very incomplete. I am also indebted to Messrs. Castberg, Bull, Bruun, Bryde, Ellevsen, and Sorensen, all managers of the different factories, for communications chiefly relating to their life-history as observed during their " fishing" this year2. II. General Characters. Compared with the three other northern Rorquals, B. borealis belongs to the smaller group, its length being somewhere between that of B. rostrata and B. musculus, or about 44 feet. Its body is less robust than B. rostrata, more like B. sibbaldi, and much better proportioned than B. musculus. The colour on the upper part of the body is dark grey-blue, something like R. sibbaldi. The belly is more or less wbite as far as the genitalia, but the remainder of the undersurface and also the flippers are of the same colour as the back. The flippers are small, smaller relatively than in the other species; the dorsal fin is large, curved, and situated far forward. The baleen-plates are black ; the bristles are white and much curled, and comparatively long. In the sea the B. borealis may be recognized at the first glance by its large, high, dorsal fin, which most nearly resembles that of B. rostrata, also by its head being more slender, and its snout more rounded than are those of the other Arctic species. 1 The colour is especially wrong, which is easily explained, as the animal was probably drawn a long time after death. 2 I have to offer m y best thanks to m y friend Mr. Alfred Heneage Cocks for the kind assistance he has rendered m e by looking over the paper before it was printed. |