408 BALJINOPTERID^. 



Of these the oldest in point of date would seem to be 

 that of a Fin-whale taken in the Zuider Zee in August 

 1811, and preserved in the Leyden Museum. The length 

 is stated to have been thirty-two feet; the skeleton, as 

 described by Prof. Flower in the " Proceedings of the 

 Zoological Society " for 1864, is that of a young animal, 

 and has fifty -five vertebrae, but the last consists of two or 

 three bodies ankylosed ; there are thirteen pairs of ribs, but 

 the last pair seem to be wanting ; the first have double 

 heads. The next specimen in point of time is Rudolphi's, 

 taken on the coast of Holstein in 1819 ; it was over thirty- 

 one feet in length, the flippers were three feet six inches 

 long and eight in. broad ; the skeleton shows, according to 

 Van Beneden, that the animal was not adult. A third 

 skeleton, obtained by Eschricht from the North Cape, is 

 stated by Prof. Flower to be in the Brussels Museum ; it is 

 about the same size as the one at Leyden, and is evidently 

 that of a young animal. Some of the vertebrae are want- 

 ing, but the original number would appear to have been 

 fifty-eight ; there are thirteen ribs on the right side and 

 fourteen on the left, the extra one being much thinner 

 than the rest ; the first pair have double heads. Accord- 

 ing to Prof. Lilljeborg, a fourth skeleton, that of a 

 Whale taken on the coast of Norway in 1863, is pre- 

 served in the Museum at Bergen ; the baleen of this 

 example is stated to be black, and the species is said to be 

 not unfrequent on the Norwegian coast. 



In February 1840, a Whale was stranded at Char- 

 mouth, Dorsetshire, and was described by the late Mr. 

 Yarrell, in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society" 

 for that year, under the name of Bal&noptera boops, and 

 by Mr. Sweeting in the " Magazine of Natural History " 

 as B. tenuirostris. Unfortunately the skeleton, which 

 was preserved, has been lost sight of, and is believed to 



