1. MEGAPTERA. 123 



blotch here and there. Baleen very closely packed together, thirty- 

 eight blades in a foot ; the largest blade was nearly 2 feet long." 

 " Female : length 31 feet 4 inches, of gape 8 feet, from snout to eye 

 S feet, of eye 15 inches, from snout to base of ijcetoral 11 feet, of pec- 

 toral lU feet ; extreme width of tail 11 feet, from snout to beginning 

 of hump 18 feet, of hump 3 feet 3 inches, from snout to cloaca 21 feet.'' 

 " Stomach contained shrimps." 



Eschricht figures a new-born specimen of this species, from Green- 

 land, which was 35 inches long ; it has several seiies of bristles on 

 the lips, parallel with the gape (see K. Dansk. Yid. Selsk. xi. t. 3. 

 f. 1, and the teeth as seen in the jaws, t. 4). 



" There is a nearly complete skeleton of a young animal, obtained 

 from Greenland through Eschricht, in the Leydeu Museum. It is 

 28' 7" long, of which the skuU is 7' 7". There are but thirteen ribs 

 present." — Flower, P. Z. IS. 1864, 397. 



In the Museum at Louvaine is a " complete skeleton of young, 

 32' 2' long, of which the head is 8' 6". Vertebra) : C. 7, D. 14, L. 

 and C. 31 = 52. Ribs 14 pairs. Sternum with a very deep notch 

 in the middle of the upper border. Upper and lower transverse pro- 

 cesses of the axis more open at the ends than in the Brussels speci- 

 men. Upper processes of the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth slender, 

 almost straight, and of nearly equal length ; lower processes much 

 shorter, and gradually diminishing from the third to the sixth ; absent 

 in the seventh."— i^/o »•(';-, P.Z.S. 18(i4, 418. 



There is " a very fine and complete skeleton, 46' long, of a nearly 

 adult individual in the Brussels Museum. The vertebral formula is 

 C 7, U. 14, L. 11, C. 21=53. llibs 14 pairs. The enormous size of 

 the fins is grandly displayed in this specimen ; they measure 12' from 

 the head of the humerus to the tip of the phalanges. The cervical 

 vertebra) are all free ; the second to the fifth have the upper and lower 

 transverse processes separate in all, but not complete at the ends. 

 Those of the second are short, thick, and convergent, but stUl with 

 a wide interval between their ends ; this, according to Eschricht, is 

 completed in the living animal by cartilage, which may in old age 

 become ossified ; but the tendency to it is certainly less than in the 

 BaJivnopterldce. According to the same excellent authority, the pro- 

 cesses of the succeeding vertebra) are not continued in cartilage so 

 far as to meet ; so that we could never expect to find osseous rings 

 on them. In the Brussels specimen the upper processes increase, and 

 the lower ones decrease in length, from the third to the fifth. There 

 is no inferior process on the sixth or seventh." — Flower, P. Z. S. 

 1864, 416. 



Dr. Johnston's description chiefly differs from Rudolphi's in both 

 lips having a row of tubercles, and in the dorsal lieing said to be a 

 small obscure protuberance ; but the animal was lying on its back, 

 sunk in the sand. 



Rudolphi (Berl. Abhandl. 1829, t. 1, 4) figures the bones of this 

 species, with enlarged details of the skull. Thej' nearly resemble 

 the skull of the Caj)e Eor(|ual of Cuvier in fonu, but the nasal boiu^s 

 are broad, and nearly of the same width from the front of the blow- 



