370 



ADDITIONS AND COREECTIONS. 



the statements of such people, as they seem to delight in making a 

 mystery of the country from which they derived their specimen, pro- 

 bably fearing that some one else may procure one for exhibition. 

 Thus all the specimens of the "Talking Fish," or Monk Seal {Monachus 

 aJhiventer) of the Mediterranean and Madeira, are always said to be 

 brought from South America. Ycry good figures of this animal, in 

 various attitudes, and an amusing account of its manners, are given by 

 the Eev. J. G. Wood in the ' Boys' Own Magazine,' vi. 213, 18G5. 



Balssua Mysticetus (page 81). 



There is a beautiful skeleton of an adult female (a full-formed 

 foetus was taken from the womb) in the Museum of the Royal 

 CoUege of Surgeons. 



Mr. Flower informs me that this skeleton entirely invalidates the 

 late Professor Eschricht's observations on the distinction between 

 the skeleton of the male and female whales ; but it is to be observed 

 that Professor Eschricht never saw the skeleton of the adult female. 



The figure of the " Bonnet of the Whale," at page 95, is unfortu- 

 nately, as it was also in the ' Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 

 1864, 170, placed wrong side upwards, the straight upper edge being 

 the one affixed to the skin of the head of the whale, a portion of the 

 skin s^illj adhering to the bonnet. 



Fig. 73. 



BalsBna Sieboldii (page 96). 



Mr. Joseph AUen, of Stoke Newington, has a Japanese work, in 

 two volumes, on whale-fishing in those waters. The first volume 

 contains an account of the way in which whales are caught on the 

 coast of Japan, with plates of the boats, nets, and the manner of 

 boiling out the oil from the blubber and the bones, which they seem 

 to chop up for the purpose. The second contains an account of the 

 anatomy of the Right Whale and the Long-finned Whale, and of the 

 apparatus used in whale-fishing, illustrated with figm-es of the bones, 

 viscera, and of the barrels, knives, and harpoons used in the fishery, 

 the figures of the knives and harpoons being the size of the instru- 

 ments used. 



