Translation 2783

183
The. total'number of baleen plates is up to 600; they are short
and straight, up to 0.5 metre in length and 20 cm in breadth. borne
of the platen in front are white and the rest are black.
Unlike the
fringe oi the soi whale, the fringe of bryde's whale, although long,
is very coarse, and ,
yellowish-grey in colour. a'lle palate is much
broader than that of the soi whale.
•
• There are 54 or 55 vertebrae (neveu cervical, 14 thoracic,
13 or 14 lumbar, and 19 to 21 caudal).
Dryde's whales are distributed in both the northern and the
southern hemis•pheres, but keep to warm waters with an iuotherm•of
20 0 0, and practically always remain between the 40th parallels of
latitude.
They are found in thL Caribbean bea as far as .Vlorida,
off the coast of Brazil, between Dakar and Spanish i.iorocco, from the
coast of Angola to the cape of Good hope, off .West Australia and New
Zealand, in southeastern Asia (burina, bira.;apore, uorneo), near Japan,.
off southern California, and from lcuador to northern .
Chile.
Lesser Rorqual (lialaenoptera acutorostrata Lacepéde, 1804)
This whale, which is up to 10 metres in length, is the smallest
of the rorquals (see Wie. 47, a), and is also known amonc , our whalers
as the dwarf' whale of the sharp-snouted, or sharp-headed, rorqual.
The iorwegian name nmink& is also occasionally used*. The body ' - 123
About 100 years ago a member of the crew.of a Norwegian
whaling.ship named Àainke somehow confused a group of lesser rorquals
with blue whales. After that incident. the nae of "mink° whale- •
became attached to the lesser rorqual.
shape and colour of the lesser rorqual are no similar to those.of the
fin whale that at one time the lesser rorqual 'tas believed to be a
juvenile fin whale. As compared with other rorquals, the body - of .
this whale is relatively shorter and stouter; its greatest ;,:irth at
the level of the flippers is from 20';: to 22;., of the body length.
The head, which has a Single medial crest, is-from one-fifth
to one-quarter of the body length. When the mouth in closed 'unelower
. jaw - projects 15-20 cm ueyond the tip of tis: snout.
The head is almost black; th.: back an d the upper surface of
- the flul,:es are dark-grey; the sides are much colour, and
th,. belly is -white. 'Loth sides of the lover - j;iw•ase almost dnas-grey.
Who flipers,.which Ur.e one-o4,ntn as lung as Luc LAni, are Lhu.natile
oolowr'an inw b ock above ond iflm.i Le underneata
u,.me is eUten a white