134 



BAL^NOPTERTlliE. 



1861. It is very thick, and of nearly uniform thickness ; front and 

 hinder articulations nearly flat ; the sides nearly straight, the lower 

 side being the widest or most arched out. The upper and lower 

 lateral processes are very strong, the upper one subtrigonal, and bent 

 down nearly on a level with the articulating surface of the centrum ; 

 the under one rather compressed above, broader, rather flattened on 

 the lower edge. Width of the body 7\, height 6 inches ; the upper 

 process 3-|, and the lower 4^ inches ; but they are e\ddently broken, 

 and the ends worn. 



II. Dorsal jin high, compressed, falcate, about three-fourths of the entire 

 length from the nose. Pectoral fn moderate, with 4 short fingers 

 of not more than 6 phalanges. Vertehrm .58 or G4. Comical ver- 

 tehrce not anchylosed ; body oblong, tramverse ; neural canal oblong, 

 transverse, broad and low. Bibs 14 to 16, first with an internal 

 compressed process. Lower jain ivith a conical coronoid process. 

 Physalina, or Finner Whales. 



Physalina, Gray, P. Z. S. 1864, 211. 



Balfena tripennis, Sibhcdd, Phal. 1692. 



Balenapterus, sp., Lacep. 



Balenopterus, sp., Lacep. ; F. Cuv. D. S. iV. Ixi. 518. 



Balajnoptera, sp., Lacep. Cet. 



Balsenoptera, Sect. 2 & 3, Gray, Zool. Ereb. c^- Terror, App. 50, 1846. 



Pterobalaena (pars), Eschricht, Nord. Wallthiere, 1849. 



(Catoptera w) Getoptera, Rafin. Anal. Nat. i. 219, 1815. 



Mysticetus, sp., Wagler, N. S. Amph. 33. 



Balsena, sp., Linn.; Illiger, Prodr. 142, 1811. 



Physalis, Fleming, Brit. Anim. 1828. 



Phvsalus, Lacep. Cet. ; Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847, 90 ; Cat. Cetac. 



1850, 34 ; Brandt. 

 Physelus, Rqfin. Anal. Nat. 60, 1815. . 

 True Finner.?', Gray, Ann. 8f Mag. N. H. 1864, xiv. 351. 



" Orbital process of frontal nearly as broad at the outer extremity 

 as the base, or somewhat narrowed. Scapula low, broad, with a 

 long acromion and coracoid process. Metacarpus and phalanges of 

 moderate dimensions. 



" Van Beneden (" Faune Littorale de Belgique," Acad. Roy. Belg. 

 1860, xxxii.) has recognized the distinctive characters of three species 

 belonging to this group, which he calls Pferobcdcena communis, P. 

 gigns, and P. minor. Dr. Gray (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 215) con- 

 stitutes these three species as the types of distinct genera, which he 

 has named Physalus, Sihhaldius, and Balcenojjtera ; he also makes 

 a fourth genus, Beneclenia. Although I am as little disposed as any 

 one to multiply generic names (a tendency of modern times of which 

 we are all apt to complain), t cannot help admitting that, if the 

 genera of Whales are to be at all equivalent in value to those now 

 generally received in other groups of mammals, the first three of 

 these are perfectly valid. Of the genus Benedenia I speak with 

 more hesitation, as it is constituted onlj' upon the examination of 

 a very young individual, which I confess I am unable to distinguish 

 from a Physcdns. As the diagnostic characters given by Dr. Gray 



