19 



and the dorsal and vent only about ^ of the entire length, 

 from the chin, so that the interspace between the pectoral 

 and dorsal must have doubled its length, while those fins 

 retained their original situations with regard to the head 

 and tail. 



Sibbald (Phalainologia Nova, 1692) figures two speci- 

 mens of this genus caught on the coast of Scotland. Ray 

 (Hist. Pisciuni, 17) notices these specimens ; and Brisson 

 and Linnit'us have regarded them as separate species. 

 Linna;us designated the one with the skin under the throat 

 dilated Baheiia muscidus, and the other, with this part 

 contracted and flat, B. Boops. Now, as I proved by the 

 examination of the specimen we have in the British 

 Museum, when alive, and as M. Ravin observes (Ann. Sci. 

 Nat. V. 275) this skin is very dilatable, so that these charac- 

 ters ap)iear to depend on the manner in which the speci- 

 men might lay when drawn. Ray, and after him Brisson 

 and Linnajus, established a third species, B. Physalus (S. 

 N. i. 186) on the Fin-fish of Martens (Spitz. 125, t. Q, f. c) 

 copied E. M. t. 2, f. 2, which well represents our sjjecies ; 

 yet as there are no folds on the belly in the figure, it has 

 been regarded by most authors as distinct from the B. 

 rostrata of Mailer and Hunter ; but the name used by 

 Martens, which is the one now given by the Greenland 

 whalers, to the Whale under consideration, I think at once 

 shows that it properly belongs to that species : and Mar- 

 tens neither mentions the colour, nor says a word about 

 the belly ; and Scoresby, who calls it B. gibbar, after 

 Bonnaterre, saj's from report that the "skin is smooth, ex- 

 cept about the sides of the thorax, where longitudinal rugae 

 or sulci occur," which at least must be a BaUenoptera. 

 Lacepede formed the Fin-fish of Martens, the Hunch- 

 back and Scrag Whale of Dudley, into a section, which he 

 calls Rorqual a ventre lisse. The Hunch-back has a 

 "reeved" or plaited belly, and the Scrag Whale is shaped 

 like, and doubtless is, a true Balcena ; yet these species 

 are kept together in Fischer, and other modern systematic 

 works : and Dr. Fleming has made Lacepede's section 

 into a genus, under the name o( Phi/salis. 



The skeleton of the young " Balieiia Boops" (No. 1194, 

 Mus. Col. Surg.) which formed part of the Hunterian col- 

 lection, and is probably the skeleton of the B. rnsiraia 

 described by him (as the head is about 4 feet long, which 

 agrees with the measurements of his figure of the animal) 

 belongs to this species, and has the lower jaws expanding 

 considerably beyond the nose of the skull. Albers (Icon. 

 Anat. 1822, t. i) figures, under the name of B. Boops, the 

 skeleton of a Whale cast ashore at Vegisack near Bremen, 

 in 1669. The length was 29 feet; length of pectoral fin 3, 

 width of tail 9. Camper (Cetac 74, t. 11, 12) figures the 

 skull of this specimen. Cuvier says he compared this 

 skull with the one from St. Marguerite's, figured by Lace- 

 pede, and could see no difference between them. Alber's 

 figures would lead to the idea that the lower jaw was scarce- 

 ly wider than the upper ; but this is corrected by Camper. 

 M. Cuvier's Rorqual de la Mediterranee is founded on the 

 skull of a whale described by Lacepede (Cetac. t. 5 — 7) 

 which was stranded near the Isle of Marguerite in 1797. 

 Lacepede gives the following measurement, viz., length, 60 

 feet; length to the pectoral, 14 feet 6 inches; from thence 



to dorsal, 10 feet 9 inches ; and from dorsal to caudal, 8 

 feet 9 inches : but there must be some mistake, as this 

 makes only 34 feet. The pectoral was 5 feet long, and all 

 black. M. F. Ciivier regards this specimen as the type of 

 B. musciilus (Cetac. 334). 



M. Van Bcneden found by examining the ear-bone 

 brought liom Island by M. Quoy, that it belonged to the 

 Rorqual de la Mediterranee of Cuvier (see Ann. Sci. Nat. n. 

 s. vi. 159), not knowing that this is the commonest species 

 of the North Sea. 



M. F. Cuvier's Cetacea also refers to the Mediterranean 

 Rorqual [B. musculus), a male Whale described by M. 

 Companyo, whicli was cast ashore near St. Cyprien, which, 

 from the account of the large size of the lower jaw, must 

 belong to this species. It was 25,060 meters (82 feet) en- 

 tire length; the head 5,038 meters (16 feet); length of pec- 

 toral 2,010 (13 feet). It had 7 cervical, 14 dorsal, 15 

 lumbar, and about 25 caudal vertebrae, in all 61. It was 

 dark gray, with the throat and the sides of the pectoral 

 white, the belly blue and white banded, pectoral grayish. 



Dr. Knox notices a specimen of a Whale found oft' N. 

 Berwick which was 80 i'eet long, the head 23 feet and the 

 tail 20 feet wide from tip to tip (Edin. N. Phil. Jour. 1833, 

 181). The skeleton of this whale is now in Dr. Knox's 

 Museum, and is figured in Jardine's ' Naturalist's Library,' 

 vi. t. 5. Dr. Knox describes it as having 13 dorsal and 43 

 lumbar, sacral and caudal vertebrae, (Edin. N. Phil. Journ. 

 1834, 198). 



Dr. Knox examined a young Rorqual, 9 feet 11 inches 

 long, 3 feet from snout to ear, and 4 feet 8 inches in girth, 

 at the end of the folds, which was cast ashore near Queens- 

 ferry, Frith of Forth, in 1834. He considers it quite dis- 

 tinct from the Great Rorqual [B. Boops), because it has 

 only 11 dorsal, 36 lumbar, sacral and caudal vertebra3, but 

 he considers it the same as B. rostrata of O. Fabricius, 

 Hunter and Scoresby (Edin. N. Phil. Jour. 1834, 199). Dr. 

 Knox's specimen is figured by Jardine under the name of 

 the Lesser Rorqual (Nat. Lib. vi. t. 7). Schlegel (Fauna 

 Japon. 24, and Abhand. 44) refers to this figure as a repre- 

 sentation of Balceiiapfera antarclica, but I cannot think 

 correctl}', for though the pectoral in the figures is larger in 

 proportion than the}' should be for a Baleen op I era, they are 

 not of the shape of the fins of Megapterce, and the artist 

 of this work was more intent on making pretty pictures 

 than accurate figures of the animals, and has made the fins 

 of both the animal and skeleton of the larger Rorquals too 

 large in proportion for the other ]3arts of the body, and 

 perhaps the length of the body is fore-shortened. The 

 figure in other respects is a pretty accurate representation 

 of a young connuon Finner. It is to be remarked that Dr. 

 Knox does not mention the length of the pectoral fins, 

 which he would have done if it had been a Megaplera. 



Dr. Knox found 8 distinct bristles arranged in perpen- 

 dicular rows on the extremity of the snout, in each jaw, 

 (Knox, Edin. N. Phil. Journ. 1834) ; and Van Breda says 

 there is a small tuft of 9 much-divided hairs, about a foot 

 long, and united by a membrane at the base, observed at 

 the end of the nose of the specimen he described. 



Pallas, under the name oi B. Physalus, (Zool. Ross. As. 

 290), described a specimen of this genus found in the North 



