Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
SOWERBY'S BEAKED WHALE.
One of the rarest of British whales, and very scarce elsewhere. It probably inhabits the open seas.
An enumeration of such whales and porpoises and dolphins as have at one time or other been stranded on the shores of the British Isles may serve as an epitome of the whole order. Only one interesting group, in fact—the River-dolphins of the Ganges and Amazons—is unrepresented in the British list. Whales, either exhausted or dead, are periodically thrown up on our coasts, even on the less-exposed portions—one of the most recent examples in the writer's memory being that of a large specimen, over 60 feet long, stranded on the sands near Boscombe, in Hampshire, and the skeleton of which at present adorns Boscombe Pier. It was one of the rorquals, or finbacks, probably of the species called after Rudolphi; but the skeleton is imperfect, though its owner, Dr. Spencer Simpson, appears to have preserved some details of its earlier appearance. It should be remembered that many of the following can only be regarded as "British" with considerable latitude, the records of their visits being in some cases as rare as those of the rustic bunting and red-necked nightjar among birds, or of the derbio and spotted dragonet among fishes.
British zoologists, however, usually include the following:—Whalebone-whales: Southern Right-whale; Humpback; Finbacks, or Rorquals. Toothed Whales: Sperm-whale, or Cachalot; Narwhal; Beluga, or White Whale; Grampuses; Beaked Whale; Broad-fronted Whale; Cuvier's Whale; Sowerby's Whale; Pilot-whale; Porpoise; Dolphin; White-sided Dolphin; White-beaked Dolphin; Bottlenose.
A selection may therefore be made of five of the most representative of these species—the Southern Whale, the Cachalot, the Narwhal, the Porpoise, and the Dolphin.
The Southern Whale, which, in common with the closely allied polar species, whaling-crews call "right," seeing that all other kinds are, from their point of view, "wrong," is probably the only right-whale which has ever found its way to our shores. Some writers include the Greenland Right-whale, but their authority for this is doubtful. It is said to grow to a length of at any rate 70 feet, though 55 feet would perhaps be more common for even large specimens. In colour it is said to be dark above, with a varying amount of white or grey on the flippers and under-surface. The head and mouth are very large, occupying in some cases one-third of the total length, and the baleen-plates measure as much as 8 or 10 feet in length and 5 or 6 feet in width. The species has no back-fin, but there is a protuberance on the snout, known technically as the "bonnet." This whale appears to give birth to its single calf some time in the spring months, and the mother shows great affection for her offspring. The Humpback is distinguished from the right-whales externally by its longer flippers and the prominence on its back, and internally by the fluted skin of the throat. The Finners, or Rorquals, have a distinct back-fin. They feed on fishes and cuttles, and I have more than once known a rorqual, which looked fully 50 feet long (comparing it roughly with my 24-foot boat), to swim slowly round and round my lugger, down on the Cornish coast, puffing and hissing like a torpedo-boat on its trial trip, rounding up the pilchards in a mass, and every now and then dashing through them open-mouthed with a terrific roar, after several of which helpings it would sink out of sight and not again put in an appearance.
Photo by A. S. Rudland & Sons.
COMMON PORPOISE.