NEW ZEALAND WHALES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18174, 21 August 1922, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND WHALES.

' 1 : ''■ »' ' ' MORE KNOWLEDGE NEEDED. A description of the'distinctive charcteristics of the various whales, porpoises, and dojphins that may be encountered in New Zealand waters, or be found stranded on the coast,«has been given the Journal of Science by Mr. W. R. B. Oliver, of the Wellington Museum. He remarks that the difficulty of studying these mammals lies in the fact that fresh material for examination is usually limited to specimens cast ashore. Perhaps an account, of the few examples that any one individual haa the opportunity to examine, says Mr. Oliver, the identity of branded cetaceans is frequently mistaken. As a consequence the chance of securing a rare whale for a scientific institution is lost; because the local expert pronounces it to be a " fylick fish" or other vaguename, or the-scien-tist may be called many miles to view a common kind; because a name that really belongs to a rare species is applied to it. Much more knowledge about the cetacea of our ssas is urgently needed. If anyone finding a stranded cetacean were to forward a description, or a photofaph to tho nearest museum, possibly a eleton of a rare species might be secured. The rotacea naturally fall into two orders—those which' hare no functional teeth, but instead are provided with * numerous plates of baleen, or whalebone, and those provided with teeth.' Within : the New Zealand area there have been observed seven species of baleen whales and 20 of toothed whales, the latter order 1 including the dolphins and porpoises.' ' Mr. Oliver gives a description of each 1 of these species,, with illustrations of 1 moat of them.