126 



BAL^NOPTEBA. BONJEBENSIS, Burmeister. The Pike Whale of Ker- 



guelen's Land. 



Synonyms Balcenoptera fion&rensis, Burmeister, P. Z. S., 1867. Ann* 

 del Mus. Pub. de Buenos Ayres, 1868 : Van Beneden 

 & Gervais, Ost. des Get., 1870. 



The Fin-backed Whale of Desolation, near Kergwlerfs 

 Land. ? Nunn's Narrative. 



Baleen short, narrow. 



The colour black, but lighter underneath. Length from 30 to 32 feet. 



The small fin-backed whales of Kerguelen's Land and the coast of 

 Buenos Ayres, described respectively by Messrs. Nunn and Burmeister, 

 appear to be identical, bearing a similar external form and dwarfed 

 dimensions of the body, and moreover occupying nearly the same 

 longitudinal belt of the South Atlantic. 



The skeleton of the B. Bonserensis has been well defined by Bur- 

 meister and Van Beneden, and by their report it seems that the Pike 

 Whale of Buenos Ayres is closely allied to the Pike Whale of the North 

 Sea, the two differing but little in their organic structure. In both the 

 beak is straight ; the vertebral column is composed of forty-eight or 

 forty- nine joints ; the second and third. of the cervical vertebraB are 

 partially anchylosed, the normal condition of the neck bones ; and the 

 sternum exhibits the lengthened form of the Latin cross. These con- 

 necting characters are aided materially by the diminutive frame, and, 

 though on opposite sides of the equator, by a similar geographic range 

 of habitat. 



Inhab. Southern Sea, coast of Buenos Ayres, Kerguelen's Land ? 



BAL^NOPTEBA SWINHOEI, Gray. The Chinese Tinner. 



Synonyms Balanoptera Swinhoei, Gray, S. & W., p. 382 ;* Van 

 Beneden & Gervais, Ost. des Get., 1870. 



Swinhoia chinensis, Gray, SuppL, p. 57. 



Inhab. Formosa. 



" Mr. Swinhoe has sent to the British Museum part of the head, 

 three cervical vertebrae, the first and seven other dorsal vertebras, and 

 eight ribs of a large Finner Whale, which was thrown ashore on the 

 coast of Formosa. The bones are nearly of the size of similar bones of 

 the European Finner (Physalus antiquorum), which often reaches to 

 60 or 70 feet, and they most probably belong to an animal nearly of 

 that size." 



" The second and third cervical vertebrae are united, as in the small 

 Finner (Balaenoptera rostrata) of Europe, while in all the larger Finners 

 which are as yet known these two bones are always free. The union of 

 the second and third cervical vertebrae is one of the characters by which 

 the genus Balaenoptera is separated from the genus Physalus." Gray, 

 p. 383. 



