129 



M. Delande's specimen, the skeleton of which is in the Paris Museum, 

 must have exceeded by several feet the preceding dimensions. 

 Inhab. South Atlantic, North, and South Pacific. 



MEGAPTIEA AMEBICANA, Gray. The Bermuda Humpback. 



Synonyms Megaptera americana, Gray, S. and W., p. 129. Suppl., 



p. 50. 

 Megaptera lurmeisteri, Gray, S. and "W., p. 129. Suppl., 



p. 50. 

 Physalus brasiliensis, Gray, S. and W., p. 162. Suppl., 



p. 53. 



Megaptera ospJiyia. Cope. 

 The Norwega and The M/stica. Hartt. 



Baleen, black, short, twisted. 



Inhab. "Western parts of the North and South Atlantic, Bermuda, &c. 



In the western moiety of both Atlantics for a considerable latitudinal 

 extent very large humpbacked whales are met with, whose external 

 colouring and form, quality of baleen and osseous structure, are greatly 

 alike. The group, however, has been partitioned by some eminent 

 writers into several distinct species, as enumerated in the synonyms, but 

 upon what grounds I cannot conceive, other than geographic range of 

 habitat. For the investigations, severely critical, into their anatomy 

 appear to have been directed more with the view of affording comparisons 

 between them and the Keporkak and Cape Humpback, than with each 

 other ; consequently the references to the points of variation, detected 

 in the skeletons, apply in their comparative estimates almost exclusively 

 to the two species named. I can readily understand that these American 

 Humpbacks may possibly differ from the Humpbacks of the Northern 

 Seas and of the Cape of Good Hope, but, as yet, I know of no good 

 reason why the M. Americana, M. Burmeisteri, M. Brasiliensis, and M. 

 Osphyia should be generically or specifically parted. 



These huge cetaceans derive their sustenance by preying upon the 

 vast hordes of small beings of diversified natures congregated within 

 and around the large area of gulf- weed 1 collected midway in the Atlantic 



1 The G-ulf-weed Banks extend from 19 to 47 in the middle .of the North Atlantic, 

 covering a space almost seven times greater than the area of France. Columbus, who 

 first met with the Sargassum about 100 miles west of the Azores, was apprehen- 

 sive that his ships would run upon a shoal. The banks are supposed by Prof. 

 Forbes to indicate an ancient coast-line of the Lusitanian land province, on which the 

 weed originated. The late Dr. Harvey stated that species of Sargassum abound along 

 the shores of tropical countries, the gulf-weed (Sargassum bacciferum) being found 

 abundantly, occupying large spaces in various portions of the deep sea. This marine 

 plant never produces fructification the berries being air- vesicles, not fruit ; yet it 

 continues to grow and flourish, wholly propagated by breakage. Besides the one 

 mentioned above, there exist considerable banks of the gulf-weed at some distance 

 from the Antilles in the North Pacific, &c., and isolated specimens, carried up by 

 the tide, have been found at the head of the Parramatta Biver, by the Rev. Dr. 

 Woolls. 



