48 MAMMALIA CETACEA. 



DIMENS. Entire length from seventy to eighty-six feet. 



DESCRIPT. Strongly resembling the last species, but said to grow to 

 a much larger size : differs also in having the lower lip much broader 

 than the upper, and semicircularly turned at its extremity, while the 

 upper is somewhat sharp or pointed at the tip: gape large; longest 

 lamina of whalebone three feet in length. 



Found in the Scotch seas with the preceding. Said to feed principally 

 on herrings. 



Obs. The characters of the species in this sub-genus are not suffi- 

 ciently well understood to admit of being laid down with any degree of 

 certainty, and there can be little doubt that the species themselves have 

 been unnecessarily multiplied. Cuvier appears to be of opinion (Regne 

 An. torn. i. p. 298.) that even the B. Physalus may eventually turn out to 

 be the same with the B. Boops, and that the supposed difference between 

 them may be the result of hasty and imperfect examination. There is 

 likewise but little dissimilarity between the B. Boops and the B. Mus- 

 culus, and it is not as yet satisfactorily ascertained that even that little 

 is to be depended upon as constant in all cases. With respect to the 

 Balcena rostrata of Fabricius and Hunter (Phil. Trans. 1787. pi. 20.) 

 which occurs not unfrequently on the British coasts, it is probably no- 

 thing more than the young state of one of the two last mentioned ; in the 

 opinion of Cuvier*, of the B. Boops. 



* See his Ostemens Fossiles (torn. v. p. 365.) which contains a valuable dissertation on the 

 different species of the Cetacea. 



