18 



Pallas, under the name of B. Boops ? (Zool. Ross. Asiat. 

 291), describes a Whale which appears to belong to this 

 genus, found at Behring's Straits by Steller, when he was 

 shipwrecked. The head was 5-, the pectoral fin 4-) the en- 

 tire length, and the vent -^ from the head, as by the fol- 

 lowing measurement: — length, 50 feet; head, 12 feet; 

 pectoral fin, 10 feet long and 5 feet wide; tail, 16 feet wide, 

 and the vent 35 feet from the head. If these measurements 

 are correct, the pectoral fin is shorter and much wider than 

 they generally are in this genus. The position of the dor- 

 sal fin is not noted. 



Pallas, in the ' Zoologia Ross. Asiat.' 293, described a 

 Whale under the name of B. musculits, observed by Merle 

 at Kamtschatka. It was long and slender, ash-brown, 

 white-clouded above, snow-white beneath and spotted on 

 the sides. It was 22 feet 6 long ; the dorsal was 6 feet 

 from the tail, and 1 foot 1 1 inches high, behind the fin the 

 back was 2-keeled ; the pectoral fin was rounded at the 

 end, and 10 feet 7 inches distant from the tip of the beak, 

 4 feet 2 inches long and 1 foot 2 inches wide : behind the 

 vent, 7 feet before the tail, and 3 feet from tiie vent is a 

 white kind of fin, and the genital organs are 1 foot 3 inches 

 before the vent. If this description and these measure- 

 ments are correct, it must be a most distinct species, if not 

 a peculiar genus : the pectoral fins are nearly in the mid- 

 dle of the body, and I know of no whale with a fin behind 

 the vent beneath, and with the genital organs nearly under 

 the pectorals. The pectoral is nearly ^ the entire length. 



Bal.enoptera, Lacep. Piked Whales. 



Rorqualus, F. Cuv. Mysticetus, Wagler. Bal. tripen- 

 nis, Ray. Physalis, Flem. 



The head elongate, flattened. The throat and chest 

 with deep longitudinal folds and very dilatile. The dorsal 

 fin compressed, falcate. The pectoral moderate, not more 

 than half the length of the head, of four fingers. The eye 

 is near the angle of the mouth, and the blowers Innate, co- 

 vered by a valve and separated by a longitudinal groove. 

 The vent under the front of the dorsal fin. Male organs \ 

 from the chin, in front of line of dorsal ; female near vent. 



Ray calls these Balisna tripeiinis, thus separating them 

 from those which have no dorsal fin ; but Polach misun- 

 derstood this, and says they have three fins on their back. 



The skull is broad, depressed : nose broad, gradually 

 tapering, with straight sides, with a narrow interorbital 

 space. — Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. 373, t. 26. 



The PiKED Whale, or Finner. Balajnoptera Physalus. 



Balajna Physalus, B. Boops, and B. musculus, Linn. S. 

 N. i. 106, from Martens and Sibbald. 



B. gibbar, Bonnat, Lacep. f. I,/. 2, cop. Martens, 



B. jubartes, Lacep. t. A,f. 1, from Sibbald, t. \,f. D. 



B. Rorqual, Lacep. t. 5, /". \, t. 6. 



B. Boops, or B. rostrata, Bliinih. Ahli . f. 74. 



B. rostrata, Muller, Dan. ii. O. Fab. F. G. 40. Ravin, 

 Ann. Sci. Nat. n. s. \. t. 11, mas, xv. t. 9. Hunter, Phil. 

 Trans. Ixxiii. t. 20, Jem. cop. E. M. t. 4. Brandt i^ Rat- 

 zeburgh, I. 15, /". 3, 4, mas el fem. Scoresh/, t. 13. 



Fin-back Whale, Dudley, Phil. Trans, xxxii. 258. 



Baltena sulcata arctica, Schleyel, Abh. i. 39, /. 6. 



Balsenoptera arctica, Schleyel, Abh. ii. 10, t. 9, male. 



Balsenoptera acuto-roslrata, Lacep. Celac. t. 8. 



Rorqual de la Mediterranee, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 372, t. 

 26,/. 5. Lacep. C'etac. t. 67. 



Balaena antiquorum, Fischer, Syn. from Cuv. Oss. Foss. 



B. Boops, F. Cuv. Cetac. 321, t. 20, cop. Lacep. t. 8. 



Great Northern Rorqual, .Tardine, Nat. Lib. t. 5, cop. 

 Bell, Brit. Quad./. 190, from Ostend Whale. 



Blackish lead-coloured, pectoral fin and lips blackish, 

 chin, under part of body below the pectoral fin, and large 

 spot on upper part of pectoral white. 



Pectoral, 4- or -rV the entire length. 



Inhab. North Seas. English and Scotch coast, not un- 

 common. 



The anatomy of this animal, and especially a descrip- 

 tion of its bones, have been given in Albers. Anat. Comp. 

 t. 1. Camper, Cetacea, t.W and 12. Cuv. Oss. Foss. v. 564, 

 t. 26, /. 5. 31. Ravin, Ann. Sci. Nat. Van Breda, Van dcr 

 Linden, and J. Duhar, in separate pamphlets on the spe- 

 cimens a.shore at Ostend. 



Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. t. 26) figured the head of this 

 Whale under the name of Rorqual de la Mediterranee. 

 The upper jaw is much narrower than the lower, which is 

 considerably arched. In his figure the upper jaws from the 

 back of the blowers are nearly three times as long as the 

 width at the part of the nose in the front of the orbit ; it is 

 gradually tapering in front, the sides being straight. 



M. Ravin (Ann. Sci. Nat. n. s. xv. t. 9) also figures the 

 skull ; but although it generally re.sembles Cuvier's figure 

 above quoted, it is shorter and broader in proportion, be- 

 ing only twice the length of the width of the jaws in front 

 of the orbit. 



The older specimens, viz., Sibbald's male, 78, Ravin's, 

 42, and Schlegel's, 40, and Van Breda of Ostend's female, 

 82 feet long, have the pectoral fin about i the length fi-om 

 the head, and I'rom ^ to Vw (probably as the inner or outer 

 edge is measured) of the entire lengtli of the body, in 

 lengths, and the dorsal about |- the entire length from the 

 nose. It would appear as if the middle of the body length- 

 ened more rapidly than the other parts as it grew, at least 

 the young females are shorter in proportion ; for Scoresb}''s 

 female, 17 feet 6 inches. Hunter's, 17 feet, and one I mea- 

 sured at Deptford, now in the British Museum, 14 feet 

 long, have the pectoral rather less than y the entire length. 



