Mr. A. Doran on the Cajjture of a Bight Whale. 329 



The authorities referred to the minister of Public Instruc- 

 tion, who, after much deliberation, made over this interesting 

 specimen to the University of Naples ; but while it was in 

 process of maceration, Signor Capellini was permitted to 

 make and publish some valuable observations. 



This whale was a young female, 12 metres in length, of 

 rather slender outline, the rostrum rather curved, the baleen- 

 plates short. The stomach was quite empty, and its mucous 

 membrane thrown into folds. 



The cranium measured about 2"o0 metres, the vertebral 

 column about 9*50 metres ; similar proportions, remarks the 

 author, are seen in Gray's Macleayius australiensis. It had 

 7 cervical, 14 dorsal, and 36 lumbar and caudal vertebrse — in 

 all 57. 



Professor Capellini observes that Van Beneden had ad- 

 mitted the existence of a distinct recent species of Balcenay 

 differing from the B. australis and B. antipodam of the 

 southern hemisphere. This is the " black whale," . well- 

 known to whalers ; yet no skeleton of this species has been 

 examined by any anatomist. The Tarentine whale probably, 

 in the opinion of the author, belongs to the above unde- 

 scribed species. After details, presently to be more fully 

 noticed, he thus epitomizes the characters of the " Balcena 

 tarentina :" — 



" Head and fins different in form from the same in B. 

 hiscayensis and mysticetus 5 colour entirely black ; parasites of 

 the rostrum and lips of the same species as in the Avhales of 

 the southern hemisphere; nasal bones of the typical form seen 

 in whales of that hemisphere ; baleen-plates 240 in number, 

 short in every measurement ; vertebrae 57. The vertebra3 of 

 the cervical region incom])letely ankylosed, the condyles of 

 the atlas bevelled on their inner aspects, corresponding to the 

 spinal canal ; the fourth, fifth, and sixth cervical vertebrge 

 liave a fissure seyeral millimetres deep on the lower aspect of 

 their bodies, the seventh is free ; the scai)u]a is broader than 

 long." 



In describing the skull, Professor Capellini states that, 

 though smaller, it reminded him of the cranium oi B. australis^ 

 and, better still, that of Macleayius australiensis ^ Gray, from 

 which it seems to differ in trifling points only. The occiput 

 is like that of the author's new fossil genus Idiocetus, in which 

 the atlas is intermediate between the same in Baliena and 

 Bahenoptera. It measures from its anterior extremity to the 

 upper border of the foramen magnum 0*62 metre. There is 

 a distinct occipital crest. The frontal bone projects 12 cen- 

 tims. from the anterior extremity of the occipital bone to the 



