] 12 BALJiXOPTERID-E. 



entire leiiglh from the nose. (Length 31 feet, dorsal 19 feet.) 

 Lilljeborg describes the dorsal fin as of the usual size, and the baleen 

 as black. 



Cuvier copies the figure of the head of this whale as that of the 

 Northern Rorqual, and points out its distinctions from that which he 

 had received from the Mediterranean. The nasal bones appear much 

 broader than in the smaU common Finner, Balcvnoptera rostntta. 



J. B. Fischer, in his ' Synopsis ilammalium,' gives the name of 

 Balcena borealis to the Rorqual du Nord of Cuvier, which is established 

 on the Balcena rostrata of Rudolphi. He adds the account of the 

 Ostend Whale to his synonyms, and gives the bifid head of the first 

 ril) as one of his specific characters ; but he mentions the Balcena 

 Boops and B. Musculus of Linne, and B. rostrata of Midler, as pro- 

 bable varieties of this species. 



M. Van Beneden, ^vho regarded this as the young of the follow- 

 ing, observes that the skeleton in the Berlin Museum, from Holstein, 

 is not quite adult ; and also states that there is a skeleton, not quite 

 adult, in the Leyden Museum, from the Zuyder Zee (1816). 



" A skeleton in the Leyden Museum, marked ' Balcenoptera Phy- 

 salus, Vinvisch, Zuider Zee.' This is no. 17 of Eschricht's list (Un- 

 tersuchungen iiber die Nordischen Wallthiere, Leipzig, 18-19), accord- 

 ing to which it was taken in the Zuider Zee, near Monnikendam, 

 Aug. 29th, 1811, its length being 32' Ptheinland. The skeleton is 

 perfect, 'with the exception of the hyoid and pehac bones. The 

 malars, lacrymals, and tympanies are present. The entire length 

 (including the skull, which is 6' 7") is 29' 7" ; but the bodies of the 

 vertebrae are placed close together, so that 2 or 3 feet shoidd be 

 added for the intervertebral spaces. The animal was young ; the 

 epiphyses of all the vertebrse, including that of the hinder surface 

 of the axis, are separate from the bodies, as well as those of both 

 ends of the humerus, radius, and ulna. The vertebral formula is 

 C. 7, D. 13 or 14, L. 16 or 15, C. 19 = 55; but the last caudal is 

 elongated, and really consists of two bodies anchylosed, with even a 

 minute rudimentary third. The cervical vertebrae exhibit all the cha- 

 racters peculiar to the genus ; but their lateral processes are, as the 

 surface of the bone shows, incomplete at the ends. The atlas has 

 a deep, compressed-from-before-backwards, short transverse process, 

 and a backward-directed, median triangular projection on the under 

 surface of its body for articulation with the axis. The five following 

 vertebra; have each an Tipper and lower transverse process, but not 

 united together at their ends in any of them — not quite, even in the 

 second. The processes are of tolerably equal length throughout, 

 except the lower one of the sixth vertebra, which is shorter and 

 broad, and twisted on itself so that its flat surface is horizontal at 

 the end. The upper processes are slenderer than the lower, and 

 become more so posteriori}'. The spaces between the upper and lower 

 processes, in vertical height, are in the second 2"-2, in the third 4"*2, 

 in the fourth 4"-2, in the fifth 4"-l, in the sixth 4"-7. The spines 

 are comparatively well developed, especially that of the axis. 



" There are thirteen pairs of ribs present ; but it is probable that 



