90 BALiENID^. 



3. Balsena marginata. The Western Australian Whale. 



The baleen very long, slender (nearly eight times as long as wide 

 at the base), pure wliite, thin, ^\ith a rather broad black edge on the 

 enter or straight side. 



Balrena marginata, Gray, Zool. E. Sf T. 48. t. 1. f. 1 (baleen) ; Cat. 

 Cetac. B. M. 1850, 14; P. Z. S. 1864, 200. 



Inhab. Western Australia. 



a, b, c. Three plates of baleen. Length 20 inches ; width at the 

 base 2 inches 6 lines. Western Australia. Presented by 

 J. Warwick, Esq. — The specimens figui-ed in the ' Voyage of 

 the Erebus and Terror,' tab. 1. fig. 1. 



This species is only known from three laminte of baleen. It is much 

 smaller aud broader, compared with its width at the base, than, and 

 is differently coloured from, the baleen of any of the other species. 



This is undoubtedly a very distinct species. The baleen is of 

 nearly the same structure as that of the Greenland Whale ; but we 

 do not know what may be the form of the first ribs, or of the bones 

 of the other parts of the skeleton. 



iA 



iJf'^ '^* ^ Balsena gibbosa. The Scrag Whale. 



(I ■ " A Scracj Whale. Is near akin to the Fin-hach, but instead of a 



fin upon its back, the ridge of the after-part of its back is scragged 



" '^' with half-a-dozen knobs or knuckles. He is nearest the llight Whale 



/'-^w do*-*^ (-^' Mystketus) in figure and quantity of oU. His bone (whalebone) 



, ^^ is^whtteribut won't spht." — Dudleij. 



" A Scrag Whale," Diulley, Phil. tTrans. xxxiii. 259 ; a^ul Whalers. 

 Balaena gibbosa, Erxi. Syst. 610 (from Dudley) ; Gmelin, S. N. i. 225 ; 

 JBonnat. Cet. 5 ; Lacep. Cit. 113 ; Virey, Nouv. Diet. H. N. ill. 185 ; 

 Gerard, Diet. Set. Nat. iii. 440 ; Desm. Mamm. 528 ; Fischer, Syn. 

 523 ; Grarj, Cat. Cetac. B. M. 1850, 18. 

 ^ Balffina gibbis vel nodis sex, B. macra, Klein, MSS. Pise. ii. 15. 



**^»- Balfena bipennis sex in dorso gibbis, Brisson, R. Aniin. 351. 

 ' Knotenfish oder Issaohhei^sh, Anders. Isl. 225-, ■Orantz, Gronland, 146. 



Bunched Mysticete, Shaio, Zool. ii. 495. 



Inhab. Atlantic Ocean. 



Dudley's account is copied by Anderson, Crantz, and all succeeding 

 authors. 



Cuvier thought the Scrag Whale {B. gihhosa) was only a Rorqual 

 (Oss. Foss. V. 267) which had been mutilated ; but I suspect, from 

 Dudley's account of the form, that it must be a Balana, probably 

 well known formerly. Indeed Beale (Hist. Sperm Whale) speaks of 

 it as recognized by the whalers now. 



" Scrags" is the whalers' name for young specimens of the Eight 

 W'hale. (See Dieifenbach, New Zealand, i. 45.) 



Bonnaterre and all succeeding authors have referred to this genus 

 the Iluniphacled Whale of Dudley, not understanding his descrip- 

 tion of the belly being " reeved," that is, plaited ; they caU it Balcena 

 nodosa. 



