120 



E. Teeth none, rudimentary and absorbed. 



Family XIII. BAL^SNOPTERID^. 1 



Finner Whales. 



Baleen 2 short, broad ; dorsal fin distinct, compressed, falcate ; pectoral 

 fins comparatively moderate ; fingers four ; head moderate, elongate, 

 flattened; body elongate; throat and belly deeply longitudinally 

 plaited ; skull broad, depressed. 



Genus PnrsALUs, 3 Lacepede. 



Dorsal fin high, erect ; vertebrae, 61-64 ; ribs, fifteen or sixteen pairs ; 

 nasal bones short, broad, deeply hollowed on their superior surface 

 and anterior border ; rami of the lower jaw massive, with a very con- 

 siderable curve, and a high pointed coronoid process ; cervical vertebrae 

 free ; head of the first pair of ribs simple, articulating with a transverse 

 process of the first dorsal vertebra ; sternum broader than long, in the 

 form of a short broad cross, resembling the heraldic trefoil, but subject 

 to considerable individual modifications. (Principally from Flower.) 



PiiYSALUs 3 ANTIQUOEUM, 4 Gray. The Eazorback. 



Synonyms Balcena pliysalus, Linnaeus. 



Phy ' solus antiyuorum, Gray, Pro. Zool. Soc., S. and W., p. 

 144; Suppl., p. 53, Flower, P.Z.S. 



Pliysalus Duguidii, Heddle. 



Balan&ptera musculus, Flem., Cuv., Eschr., Lillj, Maling, 

 Van Beneden, Gervais. 



Pterdbalcenna communis, Eschr., Van Beneden. 

 Razorlack of the Whalers. 



Baleen, slate-coloured, under-edge blackish, inner-edge pale streaked ; 

 colour of the adult animal slate-grey, beneath whitish. " Where the 

 body was black, the furrows and their interspaces were black also, 

 being covered with skin of the same texture as the body. Where the 

 black of the body began to wash off into the white of the lower parts, 

 the furrows were black and the interspaces pure white. On the lower 

 surface, where the colour was white, the plicae when separated were 

 lined with a rosy epidermis. The colour of the back of the head and 

 of the sides, to a line passing from the tail beneath the pectoral, black. 

 The jaws, and upper and under sides of both pectorals and tail, black. 

 Scattered irregularly over the back were greyish spots, three or four 

 in a square foot, resembling the appearance produced by touching the 



acna, and TrrepSu, fin. 



2 From Baleine, orfanoii (French), -whalebone. 



3 From (ftvo-dw, to blow or puff up. 



4 Antiqid, ancients. Probably this species was known to Aristotle and Pliny. 



