AND RECORD OF A MALE SPECIMEN STRANDED AT TILBURY. 45
An interesting paper on the external characters of this species, by
Robert Collett, C.M.Z.S., was read on 2nd February, 1886, before
the Zoological Society, and published in Proc. Zool. Soc. April, 1886,
page 243, with lithographed figures of male and female. He gives
therein a list of nine specimens caught between the years 1811 and
1884 on the coasts of Norway and Holland, and on the British coast.
In the year 1882 a whaling factory was established at Sorvoer, on
the coast of West Finmark, chiefly for catching the Blue Whale
(Balaenoptera sibbaldii, or Sibbald's Rorqual, the largest of this
genus, and indeed the longest animal known, attaining a length of
80 to 90 feet), but many of the Finmark "Sejhval" (B. borealis)
were also caught; and in the season of 1885 a total of 771 whales
of this species were taken by the various whaling companies ; the
largest animal measured 54 feet English, in length, and the smallest
about 36 1/2 feet.
In the month of July, 1885, Mr. Collett spent two days at the
Vardo factories, and examined six specimens—three males and three
females—the largest of which was 51 feet, and the smallest about 45
feet. The various characters and measurements of all these are very
carefully recorded. He describes the baleen as black, with about
320 to 340 blades in each jaw, and the greatest lengths varying from
520-640 millim., equal to about two feet. From the detailed
measurements he gives, it would appear that the baleen in the males
is generally longer than in the females.
The flesh of this species (but of none others) is preserved on a
large scale for human food. I have made some enquiry, but cannot
find that any is sent to this country, at any rate under its true
name.
Mr. Collett's paper concludes with a synopsis of the four Northern
species of the Balaenopteridae, and I have referred to it, as it is well
worthy the careful perusal of anyone who is interested in this group
of mammals.
[In illustration of these notes, Mr. Crouch exhibited some large
drawings he had made of Rudolphi's Rorqual, and of the external
forms and proportional sizes of the skulls and baleen of the Rorqual
and Greenland Whales, and also a monograph by A. W. Malm, with a
series of photographs, illustrating the structure of the Common
Rorqual (B. musculus), taken from a specimen stranded on the west
inclined to agree with you that the animal was a female ;" and with regard to the baleen, "I did
not succeed in obtaining any of it except a few of the shorter blades, my measurement was
approximative. It is possible that some of the blades may have been longer."