ADDITIONS AND CORRKCTIONS. 371 



Caperea antipodarum (page 101). 



There is a nearly complete but not articulated skeleton, of a whale 

 taken on the coast of New Zealand, in the court of the Museum of 

 Comparative Anatomy at Paris, which M. Serres has named Balcena 

 austi-alis ; but Professor Lilljeborg observes that " it is an entirely dif- 

 ferent species, and without doubt the Eubal(ena antipodarum of Gray. 

 The bladebone is of a very distinctive form, and has the rudiment of 

 an acromion. The ear-bones are lost." The bladebone, according to 

 the di-awing that M. Lilljeborg sent to me, " is triangular, as wide at 

 the upper end as the length of the bone, and the rudimentary acro- 

 mion is a small protuberance about one-third from the upper edge." 

 — Letter from Professor LiUJeborg, 1865. 



The beautiful preserved skeleton, with all its whalebone, in the 

 Paris Museum, which was prepared by a Captain of the French Navy 

 on the coast of New Zealand, greatly resembles the skeleton of the 

 Cape whale described by Cuvier as B. australls. It has the smaller 

 head, square nasal bones, and simple (not forked) first rib of that 

 animal. In the latter respect it differs entirely from the skeleton of 

 B. australis in the Leyden Museum. — W. Flower s Notes, Oct. 1865. 



MACLEAYIUS (pages 78 and 103). 



It appears from further information and additional photographs 

 that I have received from Mr. Krefft, that I misunderstood his letter 

 and the photograph ; and the section that I have formed in the family 

 Balceniche for a genus with a separate atlas, and the observations I 

 have made on it, are all a mistake : the atlas bone is entirely 

 soldered to the rest of the mass, as in other Balcenida;. This is to 

 be regretted ; but still the form of the atlas is so distinct from that of 

 any other kno'UTi genus of BaJamida;, that I believe the Australian 

 Right "Whale will be a distinct genus, to which the name Macleayius 

 may be properly applied, and it is no doubt a true Baleetiida. 



Mr. Krefft has sent the two following figures (p. 372) to further 

 illustrate the mass of cervical vertebras to which the name Macleayius 

 Austral i ens is has been attached. 



The additional photographs confirm the opinion that the cervical 

 vertebrae are alHed to those of the family Bala?nidce — so much so that, 

 if Mr. Krefft had not sent it to me figured with separate atlas placed 

 in front, I should have believed that the mass was the atlas and 

 cervical vertebrae of a Balcenida agglutinated in a single body, as is 

 usual in that family. 



This similarity did not strike me so forcibly until I saw these 

 additional views, especially the one that shows the hinder part of 

 the lateral processes of the anterior cervical vertebra of the mass, 

 fig. 74. 



In describing from drawings and photographs, one labours under 

 considerable difficulties ; yet such is the extraordinary absence of 

 knowledge on the subject of the larger whales, that it is better they 

 should be noticed and figui'ed until more complete skeletons can be 

 obtained. 



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