262 Lloyd's natural history. 



habits, except that it is reported to be a swifter and more 

 active animal than the Greenland Right Whale, being much 

 more violent in its movements when harpooned, and con- 

 sequently much more difficult and dangerous to capture. It is 

 also characterised by being infested by a species of barnacle, 

 more especially in the region of the blow-hole, or nostrils. 



THE HUMPBACKED WHALES. GENUS MEGAPTERA. 

 Megaptera, Gray, Zool. Voy. of Erebus and Terror, p. 16 (1846). 



Skin of the throat thrown into longitudinal grooves, or 

 puckers; a low back-fin; flippers very long and narrow, and 

 their skeleton with only four digits (in place of the five in 

 Balcena); head of moderate size; whale-bone plates short, 

 broad, and black ; vertebrae of the neck free. 



In conformity with the shorter and broader baleen, the 

 upper jaw is much less arched and much broader than in the 

 Right Whales ; while the lower lip is not elevated into the 

 curious arched form so characterisic of the latter. There is like- 

 wise a marked difference in the form of the tympanic bone of 

 the internal ear, which is more rounded and shell-like. So far 

 as can be determined, there appears to be but a single existing 

 representative of the genus. 



THE HUMP-BACKED WHALE. MEGAPTERA BOOPS. 



IBalcBfia h'dops^ Linn., Syst. Nat. ed. 12, vol. i. p. 106 (1766). 

 Balcena boops^ Fabricius, Fauna Groenlandica, p. 36 (1780). 

 Balcena longimana^ Rudolphi, Mem. Ac. Berlin, 1829, p. 133. 

 Megaptera longimana, Gray, Zool. Voy. Erebus and Terror, p. 



17 (1846); Bell, British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed. p. 392 



(1874); Southwell, British Seals and Whales, p. 69 



(1881). 

 Megaptera boops, Van Beneden and Gervais, Oiteographie des 



Cetaces, p. 120 (1869-1880); Flower, List Cetacea Brit. 



Mus. p. 4 (1885). 



