CETACEA. 33 



The skull figured, Zool Erebus and Terror, t. 2, is 4(r() inches 

 long, 28'0 at the beak, 23*0 inches wide at the orbit, 15'6 at the 

 notch, and 10*6 in the middle of the nose. The nose of the skull 

 is elongate-triangular, with straight, regularly converging sides> 

 not quite twice as long as the width at the notch. 



The first cervical vertebra is rather broader than long. The 

 central hole is half as high again as broad. The second and third 

 cervical vertebrae are united together by the upper edge. 



The second cervical vertebra has a broad, much-expanded, 

 lateral process, with an oblong central hole near the body of the 

 vertebra, reaching rather more than half its length. 



The third, fourth, fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae have two, 

 or upper and lower, lateral processes. The upper process of the 

 third is the shortest and least developed, and they increase in 

 length to the sixth. The lower process of the third is the thickest. 

 The fourth and fifth rather small, and in the sixth the basal 

 part of the process is shorter and the upper part much elongated 

 and thinner. 



The seventh is only the upper process, which resembles that 

 of the first dorsal in form, but is smaller. 



This species, which is the smallest of the family, scarcely if ever 

 exceeds 25 or 30 feet in length. 



The skeleton of the "young Balana Boops" (No. 1194, Mus. 

 Col. Surg.), which formed part of the Hunterian collection, and 

 is probably the skeleton of the B. rostrata described by John 

 Hunter (as the head is about 4 feet long, which agrees with the 

 measurements of his figure of the animal), belongs to this 

 species. 



Dr. Knox examined a young Rorqual, 9 feet 11 inches long, 

 3 feet from snout to ear, and 4 feet 8 inches in girth, at the end 

 of the folds, which was cast ashore near Queensferry, Firth of 

 Forth, in 1834. He considers it quite distinct from the Great 

 Rorqual (B. Boops), because it has only 11 dorsal, 36 lumbar, 

 sacral and caudal vertebrae ; but he considers it the same as B. 

 rostrata of O. Fabricius, Hunter and Scoresby (Edin. N. Phil. 

 Journ. 1834, 199). Dr. Knox's specimen is figured by Jardine 

 under the name of the Lesser Rorqual (Nat. Lib. vi. t. 7). 

 Schlegel (Fauna Japon. 24, and Abhand. 44) erroneously refers to 

 this figure as a representation of Balcenoptera arctica (antarc- 

 tica) ; for though the pectoral in the figures is larger in propor- 

 tion than they should be for a Balcenoptera, they are not of the 

 shape of the fins of Megaptera ; and the artist has made the fins 

 of both the animal and skeleton of the larger Rorquals too large 

 in proportion for the other parts of the body, and perhaps the 

 length of the body is fore-shortened. 



B 5 



