8. BAL.BNOPTERA. 193 



^;5^'H; -^"^^ ""^ ^°''*^' ''^^^ Queensferry, 1S34 (Kno.v); coast 

 of Norfolk, 23rd Nov. 1839, 24 feet long (Mag. N. Hist, iii 157)- 

 Cromer {Ganuy), skeleton in Mus. Coll. Surg.; Thames opposite' 

 Deptforcl Creek, Oct. 23, 1842 (Illustrated London News, i 388 • 

 Zoologist, 1842), dceietoB in Eritish Museum; Jutland 183?' 

 skeleton in Mus. Louvain ; skeleton in Mus. Bremen, head figured by 

 P. Camper; Bergens, skeleton in Mus. Paris, Charante. Polperro- 

 caught in a mackerel dril't-net. May 1850. The blubber 2 inches 

 thick.— C o«f/i. In the specimen described by Dr. Jacob the remains 

 ot herrings only were detected.— Z)««m Phil. Joxtrn. 1825, 343 

 Ihis species is well described by John Hunter (Phil. Trans. 'l787J 

 3/^3 t. 20) from a specimen caught on the Doggerbank. It was 

 1 / leet long. 



Fleming refers this animal to the BaUna trqmuutque rostrum 

 acutum of hibbald, on which Balceaa Boops is established, which 

 was 4b feet long (Brit. Anim. 31). Fleming also refers an animal 

 described and hgured by Mr. Scoresby (Arctic Eegions, i. 485 t 13 

 t 2), from notes by Mr. James Watson, from the Orkneys, to 

 Balmia mmcalus (Brit. Anim. 31 ). He quotes Sir Charles Giesecko's 

 statement '' that B. Boops is a small kind of whale, its length bein" 

 from 20 to 25 feet ;" and asks, "are we to rely on the size in de- 

 termining the species, and consider B. rostrata as a distinct species, 

 hmitcd to 2o feet m length, and represented by the rostrata of 

 J^abncius and Hunter and the Boops of Giesecke ? Fntui-e observers 

 may determine the point." (Fleming, Brit. Anim. 32.) The exami- 

 nation of specimens has determined it in the affirmative. 



Dr. Knox, in his account of the dissection of a young Rorqual, or 

 hhort }\halobone Whale, gives the foUowing as the specific differ- 

 ences in the siceleton of the greater llorqual and the smaUer, or 

 rostrata of Fabricius : — 



Great Rorqual. Vertebrse G3 : cervical 7, dorsal 13, lumbar 

 sacral, and caudal 43. ' 



SmaUer Rorqual. Vertebra 48 : cervical 7, dorsal 11, lumbar 13 

 sacral and caudal 17. 



The position of the fins in the genus is very cUfferent from that 

 tound m the genus Physalus. 1 first pointed this out in my paper 

 on British Whales (Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1846, xvii. 85), when, misled 

 by the general behef that there was only one species of Finner Whale 

 I stated that the body appeared to elongate between the fins as it 

 arrives at maturity. In the smaU ones (females ?), fi-om 14 to 25 feet 

 long (these are B. rostrata), the pectoral fins are about one-tliird 

 and the dorsal two-thirds of the length from the end of the nose • 

 but in the larger specimens, male and female (these are FhusaU) 

 the middle of the body appears to lengthen twice as fast as the* other 

 parts, for in these the pectoral is about one-fourth, and the dorsal 

 three-fourths the entire length from the end of the nose Thus 

 one IS obliged to feel one's way in the study of these animals so 

 (limcult to observe. 



Professor Barkow describes the skeleton of a small Whalebone 

 W hale in the Museum of Breslmi (Das Lebcn der Walle : Breslau 



o 



