ANATOMY OF MEGAPTERA LONGIMANA. 187 



Note on Dr Gray's Megaptera Novca-Zelandia. — The form of 

 the posterior division of the periotic bone is of particular interest, 

 as the late Dr J. E. Gray founded a new species, Megaptera 

 Novoi-Zelandioi, on the expanded form presented by that part 

 of the bones of the ear sent from New Zealand, and preserved in 

 the British Museum (P. Z. S., 1864, p. 207, and Cat. of Seals and 

 Whales in Brit. Mus., 1866, p. 128, with two figures). He re- 

 marks : — " The bones attached to the tympanic are broad and 

 expanded, very unlike the same bones in the Greenland species." 

 In his figure of the bone of the right side seen from without, the 

 posterior part is represented as a square-shaped expansion, 

 length about twice that of the tympanic, breadth equal to the 

 length of the tympanic. In the figure of the ear-bone of 

 Megaptera longimana given by Van Beneden and Gervais (loc. 

 cit., pis. X. and xi., fig. 7), this process is represented, as they 

 describe it, " a peine plus longue que la caisse elle-meme " (Text, 

 p. 126 ; see also references on pp. 119, 134, 135), while Dr 

 Gray's Megaptera Novffi-Zelandia3 " est remarquable par la 

 longueur extraordinaire d'une de ses apophyses." The seem- 

 ingly conical form of the process in the figure of Van Beneden 

 and Gervais, above referred to, is owing to its being viewed 

 from the inside and above, showing only the thick upper border 

 of the process. That is seen on placing my specimen in the 

 same position ; but in my specimen, as in Dr Gray's figure, the 

 process is nearly twice the length, and otherwise corresponds 

 very closely to Dr Gray's figure, making due allowance for the 

 evidently broken-off corners of the end of the wing. The lower 

 corner, especially, is broken off obliquely, giving the end of the 

 wing a bluntly triangular form instead of the squared end in Dr 

 Gray's figure. Making allowance for this, the resemblance to 

 Dr Gray's figure is striking. Even with these mutilations at 

 the end, this wing-like process has a length not far from twice 

 that of the tympanic, and a breadth (height) greater than the 

 length of the tympanic. 



It will be borne in mind that we know nothing of the habitat 

 of this Megaptera, or as to whether it was migrating southwards 

 or northwards. Simply that it appeared on the east coast of 

 Scotland about the middle of November, remaining through 

 December, and that Megaptera is very rare on British coasts. 



