44 CETACEA. 



Balaenoptera australis, Gray, ZooL E. fy T. 51. 

 B. australis, Southern Rorqual or Finback, Nunn, Narrat. Fa- 

 vourite, 183. fig. 

 Inhab. Falkland Islands, Quoy. 



Desmoulin (Diet. Class. H. Nat. i. 164), under the name of Ba- 

 l&na rostrata australis, described a whale seen by M. Quoy on 

 the shores of Falkland Islands, which he says was exactly like 

 B. Physalus. It was 55 feet long, and the pectoral fin 6 feet 

 3 inches, that is, about the entire length, the same as in Balce- 

 noptera Physalus ; but he says the dorsal fin was over the male 

 organ, a character which as far as I know is peculiar to the Hump- 

 backed Whale (Megaptera), thus presenting a combination of cha- 

 racters, which, if correct, will not only prove it to be a distinct 

 species, but one forming a section by itself. 



Lesson (Tab. Reg. Anim. i.202) gives the name of Balcenoptera 

 australis to the "Fin-back of the Whalers of the South Sea." It 

 is most probably intended for this species, as Falkland Islands is 

 given for the habitat ; but it may be Megapteron Poeskop, or per- 

 haps a confusion of both. 



If reliance is to be placed on the wooden models made by the 

 Aleutians, which have been described and figured by Chamisso, 

 and many of them are not bad representations of known genera, 

 there is a genus found at Kamtschatka which has not yet been de- 

 scribed. It is called Balcena Tschiekagluk by Pallas, Zool. Ross. 

 Asiat. i. 289 ; Nov. Act. Nat. Cur. 259. 1. 19. f. 6. It has no dor- 

 sal fin, and a smooth belly and chest ; the upper and lower part 

 of the under portion of the body is slightly keeled, the head 

 rounded, like Balcenoptera, with the blow r er on the hinder part of 

 the crown. The lower side of the tail and the pectoral are white. 



Fam. 2. CATODONTIDJE. TOOTHED WHALES. 



Head large. Upper jaw toothless ; lower jaw with conical 

 teeth fitting into cavities in the edge of the upper one. Blowers 

 united together, with a lunate opening. Skull concave above in 

 front, with a much-elevated frontal ridge behind and on the side 

 of the blowers. 



Delphinia Catodonia (pars), Rafin. Anal. Nat. 60, 1815. 

 Cete Carnivora (pars), Lesson, N. Reg. Anim. 201 . 

 Physetereae, Lesson, N. Reg. Anim. 201. 

 Zahnwale (pars), Oken, Lehrb. Naturg. 672, 1815. 



SYNOPSIS OF THE GENERA. 



1. CATODON. Dorsal hump rounded. Blowers on front of 

 truncated head. Skull elongate. 



