500 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



ed on the shores of Western and South Australia, New South 

 Wales, Tasmania, and New Zealand, almost nothing is known 

 of the habits and distribution of this remarkable little whale, 

 which in some ways seems to combine characters of both right 

 whales and fin whales, though evidently most nearly allied to 

 the former. Hale (1931) has given details of the measurements 

 of three individuals reported many years before from South 

 Australian waters, and adds record of a fourth. These are: 

 One stranded at Brounslow, Kangaroo Island, October 21, 

 1884, the skeleton of which is in the South Australian Museum; 

 a second tangled in a fishnet, at Victor Harbor, Encounter 

 Bay, September 13, 1887, and now in the same museum; a 

 third from Kangaroo Island, October 21, 1889, and now in the 

 Museum at Cambridge, England; and a fourth of which a 

 photograph is given, from West Sister Island, Bass Strait, 

 June, 1929. Lord and Scott (1924) mention one washed ashore 

 at Kelso Bay, Tasmania, "many years ago." Oliver (1922) 

 mentions that a very few specimens have been stranded on the 

 New Zealand coast and that there are skeletons in the Domin- 

 ion Museum at Wellington. There is a mounted skeleton in the 

 Australian Museum at Sydney, New South Wales, from Canter- 

 bury coast, New Zealand, and there are two in the British 

 Museum, one of them from Stewart Island, New Zealand; a 

 second skeleton from this island is in the Dominion Museum, 

 as well a skull from Kawau. Finally a skeleton from probably 

 Stewart Island is in the Paris Museum. It is evident that the 

 present known range of the species is limited to the seas about 

 New Zealand and the southern parts of Australia. E. A. 

 Wilson (1907), however, believed that this was the whale he 

 saw commonly in the Ross Sea where he met with it constantly 

 "wherever there is loose pack ice. It is a black or dark grey 

 whale of from 20 to 30 feet in length, with a very rounded 

 back, and a small hook-like dorsal fin which slopes well back- 

 wards ... As a rule this whale was solitary ; occasionally 

 two or three, but never more were seen together. " While such 

 identifications made at sea may not always be relied on, 

 Wilson's observation may be quoted for what it is worth. At 

 all events, the species does not enter into recent whaling sta- 

 tistics for the Ross Sea, and while at present it is probably 

 exempt from capture on account of its small size, it may never- 

 theless someday be pursued in Australian waters if it is found 

 to occur regularly. 



