124 BAL^NOPTERID^. 



holes to near the tip, where they gradually taper ; the temporal bones 

 appear more quadrangular. The skeleton is in the Berlin Museum. 

 It was taken in the Elbe, 1822. 



According to Professor Eschricht, this is the most common whale 

 in the Greenland seas. In the ' Danish Transactions ' he has given a 

 figure of this species, and a very detailed account of its anatomy and 

 development, chiefly founded on the examination of the foetus. 



He observes, " This animal is always infested with Diadcma Bcthv- 

 minini, and with a species of Otion, which he regards as now, while 

 the Cirripedes are never found on any species of Bala'iinjdera. On 

 the other hand, the Tuhkinella, Coronida Bcthcnaris, and Otions arc 

 often found on the Balcena Mysticetus or Right Whale of the Southern 

 Seas " (see Eschricht, 144). 



The following descriptions must be referred to this species with 

 doubt, as both agree with true Balcoiopterai in the position of the 

 genital organs and vent compared with the dorsal fin, and Fabricius 

 especially saj's the pectoral fin is composed of five fingers. 



Ascanius (Icon. Rer. Nat. iii. t. 26) gives a figure of a female 

 Rorqual with a plaited belly, 60 feet long, from the North Sea, which 

 he thought might be B. musculus of Linna3us (it is not Avell copied 

 by Bonnaterre, E. M. t. 3. f. 1, and Schreber, t. 33-3) ; it has a 

 large pectoral fin, about two-ninths the length of the body; but 

 the drawing is not so good as the others in the work, and the fin is 

 so awkwardly applied to the body, that perhaps its size may depend 

 on the incompetence of the artist. The dorsal fin, which is only 

 indicated as if doubtful in the original figure, is continued to the 

 tail, but in Bonnaterre's coj^y it is represented as of equal authority 

 with the other part. 



0. Fabricius (Faun. Grcenl. 37), five years after, described a 

 Balcenoptera under the name of B. Boops, Linn., which appears to 

 differ from B. Plvjsnlus, for he says — " Pinna) pectorales magn», 

 obovato-oblonga?, margine postica Integra, regione cubiti parum 

 fractae, antica autem rotundato-crenatoe." And, he continues, "Ante 

 nares in vertice capitis tres ordines convexitatum circularium, huic 

 forsitan peculiare quid,'' — " Pinna dorsalis compressa, basi latior, 

 apice acutiuscula, antice sursum repanda, postice fere perpcndicu- 

 laris," and " Corpus pone pinnam dorsalem incipit carina acuta in 

 pinnam caudalcm usque pergcns." 



Rudolphi, and after him Schlegel, refer B. Boops, 0. Fabricius, 

 to this species ; and Professor Eschricht has no doubt that Balama 

 Boops of 0. Fabricius is intended for this species, as it is called 

 Keporlcal- by the Greenlanders. If this be the case, Fabricius's de- 

 scription of the form and position of the dorsal fin and the position 

 of the sexual organs is not correct. 



Brandt, in the list of .Utaian animals (Voy. Alt. Orient. 1845, 4to), 

 has adopted this opinion, and formed a. section for Balimoptera 

 longimana, which he calls Boops, merely characterized as " Pectoral 

 elongate." 



Schlegel refers the Rorqiialus minor of Knox to this species, pro- 

 bably misled by the inaccurate figures of this species in Jardine's 



