RUDOLPHI'S RORQUAL. 407 



CETA CEA . BA L^NOP TERIDjE. 



(MYSTACOCETI.) 



RUDOLPHI'S RORQUAL. 



Balcenoptera laticeps (J. E. Gray). 



Specific Character. Black above, white below ; upper surface of flipper 

 black. Baleen black ? Rostrum of skull very broad ; vertebrae about 58 ; 

 ribs 15 pairs, the first usually (or always?) double-headed. Length of adult 

 30 to 40 feet. 



Balcena rostrata, RCJDOLPHI (nee Linn.) Berlin Abhandl., 27 (1820). 



Balcenoptera laticeps, J. E. GRAY, Zool. Erebus & Terror, I., 20 (1844). 



Sibbaldius laticeps, P. Z. 8., 1864, 223. 



? Balcenoptera loops, YARRELL, P. Z. S., 1840, 11. 



? tmuirostris, SWEETING, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1840, iv. 342. 



RUDOLPHI'S Rorqual is a small species, not much 

 larger than the Lesser Rorqual, with which it was for- 

 merly confounded. Very little is yet known of its history 

 and geographical distribution. 



In 1820 Rudolphi described a specimen taken in 

 Holstein under the name of Balaena rostrata ; its skeleton 

 is still preserved in the Berlin Museum. This was the 

 " Rorqual du Nord" of Cuvier (Oss. Foss., V.,p. 564), 

 to which Fischer gave the name of Balaena borealis, in- 

 cluding the Ostend Whale in his description. But the 

 distinction of Rudolphi's specimen was first clearly 

 pointed out by Dr. Gray, in the " Zoology of the 

 Erebus and Terror " in 1846, and other skeletons have 

 since been found to belong to the same species. 



