2. NEOBAL^NA. 41 



tion of the entire animal and its skeleton, as the animal may prove 

 to be the type of a new family of Whales, between the true Whales 

 and Pinners. 



This pigmy whale, which is not more than 15 or 16 feet long, is 

 •a representative in the Southern Ocean of the gigantic Eight Whale 

 of the Greenland seas. It has the most beautiful, the most flexible, 

 most elastic, and the toughest whalebone or baleen yet discovered ; 

 and if this were of larger size, it would fetch a much higher price than 

 the whalebone of the Greenland Whale, the latter being three or four 

 times the value of the brittle coarse whalebone of the JEuhalcence or 

 Right Whales of the Southern and Pacific Oceans. The trade of the 

 Continental nations being chiefly confined to their colonies, or their 

 merchants obtaining the whalebone that is used in their manufac- 

 tures second-hand, there are not in the market the varieties of whale- 

 bone and finner-bone which we have in this country, where the whale- 

 bone and finner-bone from different localities bear each a different 

 value. This perhaps explains why the Continental zoologists (as 

 Eschricht) who have paid attention to the structure of whales have 

 not paid sufficient attention to the characters afforded by the shape, 

 structure, and colour of this substance, to which I called their atten- 

 tion more than twenty years ago, and showed its value as a cha- 

 racter for distinguishing the genera and species. It has been a 

 fertile subject of reproach to me that I established some species on 

 the characters afforded by this substance; but I need only mention, as 

 a proof of the little attention Van Beneden has paid to this part of 

 my work, that in his book on the anatomy of Whales, now in pro- 

 gress, after saying that I have established the species Balcena mar- 

 ginata on three blades of whalebone, he says I have called it Euha- 

 Icena marginata, thus confounding it with the Whales with brittle 

 and coarse whalebone — whereas the chief reason that induced me to 

 consider the blades to belong to a distinct species was their very fine 

 and tough structure. The accuracy of the determination is now proved 

 by the very different form of its skuU from that of any other known 

 Whale. In the same manner, the Physalus antarcticus, also esta- 

 blished on finner-bone or baleen imported from New Zealand, has 

 been proved to be a very distinct species of that genus, named Sul- 

 phur-bottoms by the whalers. 



Prom the description given at page 90 of the British-Museum 

 ' Catalogue of Seals and Whales,' there is no doubt that the baleen 

 corresponds with the above species. The specimen was obtained at 

 Kawau Island by Sir George. Grey, and appears to be unique, as the 

 species has hitherto only been known from the baleen. 



The dimensions are as follows : — 



lbs. 



Weight of cranium 58 



Weight of lower jaw 13 



ft. in. 



Length 4 9 



Pronto-nasal section 2 10 



