20 



Sea in 1740. It was 84 feet long; the pectoral, 9, the head 

 22 feet long, and the tail 14 feet wide. He describes the 

 skin as brown. 



The following description must be referred to this spe- 

 cies with doubt. 



Ascanius (Icon. Her. Nat. iii. t. 26) gives a figure of 

 a female BalieHoptera, which he calls a Rorqual with a 

 plaited belly, 66 feet long, from the North Sea, which he 

 thought might be B. musculus of Linneeus, (it is not well 

 copied by Bonnaterre E. M. t. 3, f. 1 and Schreber, t. 



), which has a larger pectoral fin, about f the length of 

 tlie body, but the drawing is not so good as the others in 

 the work, and the fin is so awkwardly applied to the body, 

 that perhaps its size may depend on the incompetence of 

 the artist. The dorsal fin, which is only indicated as if 

 doubtful in the original figure, is continued to the tail, but 

 in Bonnaterre's copy it is represented as of equal authority 

 with the other part. I may remark that the pectoral fin, 

 instead of having the white spot occupying the greater 

 part of its upper side, which is spoken of l\y Hunter, Ra- 

 vin, and F. Cuvier, and found in our specimen, is repre- 

 sented dark like the back, with a pale edge. It is also to be 

 observed that Schlegcl, in the three figures he gives of the 

 Rorqual Whale, represents the pectoral fin as all black, like 

 the back. 



Fabricius (Faun. Groen. 37) five years after, described a 

 Balcenopfera under the name of B. Boops, Linn, which 

 appears to differ from B. P/iysalus, for he described the 

 " Pinna; pectorales magnae, obovato-oblongir, margine pos- 

 tica Integra, regione cubiti parum fractw, antica autem ro- 

 tundato-crenata3." And he continues, " Antes nares in 

 vertice capitis tres ordines convexitatum circularium, huic 

 lorsitan peculiare quid," "Pinna dorsalis compressa, basi 

 latior, apice acutiuscula, antice sursum repanda, postice 

 fere pei-pendicularis," and " Corpus pone pinnam dorsalem 

 incipit carina acuta in pinnam caudalem usque pergens." 

 This, from the size of the pectorals, may be the same as 

 tlie one figured by Ascanius. Both are true Balaiioptera, 

 from the position of the genital organs and vent compared 

 with the dorsal fin, and Fabricius especially says the pec- 

 toral fin is composed of five fingers. 



Ri DOLPHi's FiNNER Whale. Balaenoptera laticeps. 



Bakena rostrata, Rudolphi, Berl. Abhand. 1820, t. 1 — 4. 



Rorqual du Nord, Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 564, I. 26,/. 6. 

 copied from Rudolphi. 



Black, beneath white ; upper jaws wide, in the skull 

 only twice as long as the width of their base in front of the 

 orbits, the lower ones slightly curved and scarcely wider 

 than the edge of the upper ones. Pectoral fin J the entire 

 length, and rather more than ^, and the dorsal nearly ^, 

 from the nose. 



Inhab North Sea, coast of Holstein, 1819, Rudolphi. 



The length was 31 feet 1 ; from nose to the eye, 2,9 ; to 

 blower, 3,11 ; to pectoral, 3,6i ; to the front of the dor- 

 sal, 19,2 ; to the vent, 21 feet. * 



Cuvier copies the figure of the head of this Whale as 

 tliat of the Northern Rorqual, and points out its distinc- 

 tions from that which he had received from the Mediterra- 

 nean, which agrees with the head of the Balaiia rostrata 

 of Hunter, the one we have from Deptford, and with M. 



Ravin's animal, and that found on the shores of Ostend. 

 It is very desirable that Rudolphi's skeleton should be more 

 particularly examined and compared with the other species: 

 in the figures, the nasal bones are much broader than in 

 the common Finner, Balcenoptera Physalus. 



The Peruvian Finner. Balaenoptera fasciata. 



Bal. n. s. Tschndi, Mammal. Coiisp. Peruana, 13. 



" Lower jaw scarcely longer than the upper ; head and 

 back ash-brown ; belly whitish ; tips of fins and a streak 

 from the eye to the middle of the body white." Tschudi. 



Inhab. Coast of Peru. 



The Japan Finner. Balaenoptera Iwasi. 



Balaenoptera arctica, Schlegel, Faun. Japon. 26. 



A species of this genus is known in Japan under the 

 name of Iwasi Kuzira. It is very rare. One was cast 

 ashore in 1760 at Kii, which was about 25 feet long: black, 

 belly whitish, .sides white-spotted. They distinguish it 

 from the other Whales by the head being smaller, narrower 

 and more pointed, and the pectoral shorter. It was driven 

 ashore by the Sakaiiata (grampus). No remains of this 

 species were brought home by AI. Siebold. Temminck's 

 ' Fauna Japonica ' says that it is the same as the northern 

 species. It is very desirable that the bones of the Japan 

 and northern specimens should be accurately compared. 

 It may be observed that several animals, the Mole and the 

 Badger for example, were said to be equally like the Eu- 

 ropean species, but recent research has .shown they are 

 distinct, and are now so allowed in the ' Fauna Japonica.' 



This genus also inhabits the Columbian shores. Lewis 

 and Clarke mention the skeleton of a Rorqual found near 

 the Columbia river, 105 feet long. — Travels, -iii. 



Chamisso, in his accounts of the wooden models of 

 Whales which were made by the Aleutians, of the species 

 found in their seas, which he deposited in the Berlin Mu- 

 seum, and described and figured in the N. Acta Nat. Cur. 

 xii. 212, figures three kinds of this genus, viz., Ahucjulich, 

 t. 16, f. 2; Maiiffidac/t, t. 16, f. 3; and A(/amachtsc]iidi, 

 t. 18, f. 4, the B. Afjamaclischik, Pallas, Z. Ross. t. a. 



If reliance is to be placed in the wooden models made 

 by the Aleutians, which have been described and figured 

 by Chamisso, and many of them are not bad representa- 

 tions of known genera. There is a genus found at Kams- 

 chatka which has not yet been described : it is called 

 Baleena Tschiekagluk by Pallas, Zonl. Ross. Asiat. i. 289. 

 — Nor. Act. Nat. Cur. 259, /. 19,/: 6. It has no dorsal 

 fin, and a smooth belly and chest ; the upper and lower 

 part of the under portion of llie body is slightly keeled, 

 the head rounded, like BalcBnoptera, with the blower on 

 the hinder part of the crown. The lower side of the tail 

 and the pectoral are white. 



*** " Male Organs under the Dorsal." 



Southern Finner. Balaenoptera australis. 



B. Quoyii, Fischer, Sijii. 526. 



B. rostrata australis, Desmoulin , Diet. CI. H. N. ii. 166. 

 Inhab. Falkland Islands. 



Desmoulin (Diet. Class. H. Nat. i. 164), under the name 

 of Balaiiia rostrata australis, described a Whale seen by 



