MEGAPTERA. 67 



Nose as bi'oad as the expanded brain cavity at the base, regularly 

 attenuated to a tine point in front, and slightly arched downwards. 

 Lower jaw laminar, compressed, and high; the upper edge thin 

 and inflexed on the greater part of its length, erect in front ; the 

 lower edge inflexed in front the rest of the edge simple. Baleen 

 elongate, slender, several times as long as broad, with a fringe of a 

 single series of tine fibres; enamelled surface smooth and polished, 

 thick. Cervical vertebne united into a single mass. Ribs ex- 

 panded and flattened. Scapula low and broad, with well developed 

 coracoid and coronoid process. 



Vertebrae. C. 7, ]). 17, L. 3, Cd. 16 = 43. 



1. NEOBAL.ENA MARGINATA, Gray, sp. (1866). 



Pigmy Right Whale. 



Head about one-fourth of the total length. Baleen pale yellow 

 with a dark margin. Although two fresh specimens have recently 

 come ashore at or near Adelaide, S. A., no measurements or 

 descriptions of the external characters appear to have been taken, 

 and until Dr. Gray's diagnosis of the genus, which is taken solely 

 from photographs supplied by Dr. Hector, can be supplemented 

 by original observations, no reliable description of the external 

 characters is possible. 



Dimensions. Said to be up to twenty feet. 

 Habitat. Southern Australian and New Zealand Seas. 

 Reference. Gray, Suppl. to B. M. Catal. Seals and Whales, p. 

 40, figs. 1 (side view of skull) and 2 (top view of ditto). 



Genus III. MEGAPTERA, Gray (1846). 



Skin of throat plicated. Head of moderate size. A low dorsal 

 fin present. Fore limbs very long and narrow, about a fourth of 

 the total length of animal, tetradactylous, the phalanges very nume- 

 rous. Baleen short and broad. Cervical vertebne free. Scapula 

 with the acromion and coracoid process absent or rudimentary. 



Vertebra. C. 7, D. 14, L. 10 or 11, Cd. 21 ; total 52 or 53. 



1. MEGAPTERA BOOPS, Fabricins (1780). 



Hump-back "Whale. 



Back and sides black ; belly yellowish-white, sometimes with 

 irregular black spots. Anterior and posterior edges of pectoral 

 fin irregularly notched. 



Dimensions. Up to at least sixty feet. 



Habitat. -All seas except the tropical and subtropical. 



References. Gray, B.M. Catal. Seals and Whales, p. 126, fig. 

 19 (fifth cervical vertebra) arid p. 128, fig. 20 (ear-bones); Scott, 

 Seals^and Whales, p. 128. 



