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 HUMP-BACKED WHALES. GENUS MEGAPTERA. 

 Mcgapterd) 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 

 Baland) ; 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. 



IBalana boops, Linn., Syst. Nat. ed. 12, vol. i. p. 106 (1766). 

 Balczna boops, Fabricius, Fauna Grcenlandica, p. 36 (1780). 

 Balana 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 Geryais, Oote'ographie des 



Grace's, p. 120 (1869-1880); Flower, List Cetacea Brit. 



Mus. p. 4 (1885). 



