120 CETACEAN GALLERY. 



executed coloured model, on the scale of one inch to the foot, pre- 

 sented by Captain David Gray, gives a good idea of its external 

 appearance. 



Besides the Greenland Whale there are several other members 

 of the genus, distinguished from it by having heads somewhat 

 smaller in proportion to the body, and with shorter baleen, and a 

 larger number of vertebrae. These inhabit the temperate seas of 

 both northern and southern hemispheres; and although divided 

 by zoologists into several species, in accordance with their geogra- 

 phical distribution B. Uscayensis, of the North Atlantic; B. 

 japonica, of the North Pacific ; B. australis, of the South Atlantic ; 

 and B. antipodarum and nov<e-zelandi<e, of the South Pacific 

 their distinctive characters, if any, have never been accurately 

 made out. The first named was the Whale formerly regularly 

 hunted by whalers from the Basque sea-ports of France and 

 Spain, and the main source of supply of whalebone and oil until 

 the discovery of the Greenland Whale in the seventeenth century. 

 It therefore became extremely rare, but owing to the diversion of 

 the whaler's attention to the larger and more profitable Arctic 

 species, it has of late years become again rather more numerous. 

 The skeleton of a male specimen obtained from the coast of Iceland 

 has lately been added to the collection. A mass of united cervical 

 vertebrae, dredged from the bottom of the sea near Lyme Regis, in 

 1853, probably also belongs to this species. The skeleton from 

 New Zealand (labelled Balana australis), of a not quite full-grown 

 animal, exhibited in the Gallery, shows how closely related the two 

 species are. None of the Right Whales exceed 50 feet in length. 



Neobalana. Two skeletons (adult and young) of a very remark- 

 able Whale of small size (less than 25 feet), from New Zealand and 

 Australia, of which very little is as yet known, are placed on the left 

 side of the room, near the windows. Besides some great peculiarities 

 in the form of its bones, this species is distinguished by its very 

 long, slender, elastic baleen, which is nearly white in colour, with a 

 dark external border. 



Rhachianectes. The Grey Whale of the North Pacific, of which 

 a skeleton is exhibited, combines the small head, elongated form, 

 and narrow pectoral fin of Balcenoptera with the smooth throat 

 and absence of the dorsal fin of Balcena. It is an exceedingly rare 



