I 



MEGAPTERINJE. 129 



The bones attached to the tj-mpanic arc broad and expanded, very 

 unlike the same bones in the Greenland species. 



This species may be the same as the one from the Cape ; but it is 

 well to indicate the existence of a Humpbacked Whale in this dis- 

 trict, in the hope of inducing naturalists to give an account of it, or 

 to send a skeleton of it to England for comparison. 



M. Van Benedon states that there is the incomplete skull of a 

 Megaptera, bi'ought from Java by Professor Reinhardt, in tic Leyden 

 Museum, but Mr. Flower informs me that it is more like the skull 

 of a young SihhakUus. 



2. Megaptera? Burmeisteri. 



Baljenoptera allied to B. Lalandii, Burmeister, MSS. 



Inhab. coast of Ijuenos Ayres. Mus. Buenos Ayres. Skeleton 

 complete, ♦ithout the fore fins {Burmeister). 



The skeleton is alhed to B. Lalandii of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 figured in Cu^-ier's ' Ossemens Fossiles.' The shape of the skull is 

 different. The ribs 14 . 14. 



" The vertebrae are also peculiar. After the fourteen dorsal, which 

 bear the ribs, follow twelve lumbar without any under processes 

 (haemapophyses), and then follow three with processes. The first of 

 these is very remarkable for the shortness and peculiar figure of its 

 small transverse processes, and especially for the very large size of 

 the body of the vertebra, which seems to me to indicate clearly the 

 sacral vertebra, or the beginning of the tail." — Burmeister, Letter, 

 24th Sept. 1864. 



3. Megaptera Americana. The Bermuda Humphaclc. 



Black ; belly white ; head with round tiibercles. 



Whale ( JuLartes P), Phil. Trans, i. 11 (1665). 



Bunch or Humpbacked \N'hale of Dudley, Phil. Irans. xxxiii. 258. « '^^ ' 



Bcdicna nodosa, Bonnaterre, Cet. 5, from Undleif. '^^ ' 



luMo^tM*- 



Megaptera Americana, (J ray, Zool. Ereh. S;- Terror, 17. / ^f^c f.Oi<^^ 



Megapteron Americana, Gray, Zool. Ereh. i^- Terror, 52. ^ 



Inhab. Bermuda, March to end of May, when they leave. 1 i\.t.i oot^ itf/ 



I have a tracing of the Bermuda Whale, but do not know whence /-'^ I ^ -^ /*4 



it was derived : it is said to be common in that island. It is very ^ , ■ /. '^ 



like the figure oi Meijapteru lonyinianu, but the dorsal fin i>s repre- ^* * '**■*" 



sented as lower, and the tail wider. This is doubtless the whale -J ^^-^ 



described in I'hil. Trans, i. 11 and 132, where an account is given of ^3^ i^ lats- 



the method of taking it. It is described thus : — " Length of adult -\, ' 



88 feet ; the pectoral 26 feet (rather less than one-third of the entire ^''"' ^ ^-^^ 



length), and the tail 23 feet broad. There are great bends (plaits) dt^m^^fuT' 



undeineath from nose to the navel ; a fin on the back, paved ■with - >— 



fat like the caul of a hog ; sharp, like the ridge of a house, behind ; ^^'-''^ ^" ' ^ 



head pretty blutf, full of bumps on both sides; back black, belly Iv'^ouy]- 



white, and dorsal fin ])ehind." /■_ ^ j 2 U.- 



'• Upon their fins and tail they have a store of clams or barnacles, ^7 . , 



upon Avhich he said rock- weeds and sea-tangle did grow a hand long. VC{.n/-t-Cr^t 



