8. BAL^NOPTERA. 1913 



N. Hist.) ; Frith of Forth, near Queensferrj^, 1834 (Knox) ; coast 

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

 Cromer (Gnniei/), skeleton in Mus. Coll. Surg. ; Thames opposite 

 Deptford Creek, Oct. 23, 1842 (Illustrated London News, i. 388 ; 

 Zoologist, 1842), skeleton in British Museum ; Jutland, 1837, 

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

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

 caught in a mackerel drift-net. May 1850. The blubber 2 inches 

 thick. — Couch, In the specimen described by Dr. Jacob the remains 

 of herrings only were detected. — Dublin Phil. Journ. 1825, 343. 

 This species is well described by John Hunter (Phil. Trans. 1787, 

 373. t. 20) from a specimen caught on the Doggerbank. It was 

 17 feet long. 



Fleming refers this animal to the Balcena tripinnaque rostrum 

 acatum of Sibbald, on which Balcena Boops is established, which 

 was 46 feet long (Brit. Anim. 31). Fleming also refers an animal 

 described and figured by Mr. Scoresby (Arctic Regions, i. 485, t. 13. 

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

 Balcena mmculus (Brit. Anim. 31 ). He quotes Sir Charles Giesecke's 

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

 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, 

 limited to 25 feet in length, and represented by the rostrata of 

 Fabricius and Hunter and the Boops of Giesecke ? Futui'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 

 Short Whalebone Whale, gives the following as the specific differ- 

 ences in the skeleton of the greater Rorqual and the smaller, or 

 rostrata of Fabricius : — 



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

 sacral, and caudal 43. 



Smaller Rorqual. Vertebrae 48 : cervical 7, dorsal 11, lumbar 13, 

 sacral and caudal 17. 



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

 found in the genus Physalus. I 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 small ones (females ?), from 14 to 25 feet 

 long (these are B. rostrcda), the pectoral fins are about one-third, 

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

 but in the larger specimens, male and female (these are Phi/sali), 

 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 

 difficult to observe. 



Professor Barkow describes the skeleton of a small Whalebone 

 Whale in the Museum of Breslau (Das Leben der Walle : Breslau, 







