324 Prof. J. Eeinhardt on the Fin- Whale 



succeeded in distinguishing these species. About the exterior 

 of the living animal very little is known in most cases, nay, 

 absolutely nothing as far as certain species are concerned. 

 Even the colour of the different species, though so much more 

 easily distinguished and represented than the variations in the 

 external conformation of such huge animals, is still far from 

 being known with the accuracy that might be desired. It is 

 even still undecided to what extent characters can be drawn from 

 the colour of these cetaceans, and at present zoologists seem 

 inclined to consider great differences in this respect to be of 

 little or no importance. This may be shown by a few in- 

 stances. Thus, when of late years the gigantic fin-whale found 

 near Ostend, and described in the pamphlets and papers of 

 Dubar, Van Breda, and Van der Linden, was considered 

 (and no doubt justly) specifically distinct from Balceno^tera 

 laticeps^ Gray, and called by some Balcenoptera gigas^ by others 

 Sihhaldius horealis^ the great difference in size seems to have 

 been the principal motive for doing so ; and a few years 

 ago a learned cetologist thought himself obliged to grant that 

 the two species just mentioned may still prove identical, with- 

 out having thought it necessary in settling this question to 

 pay any regard to the difference in their colour. Further, 

 there has apparently been no hesitation in referring fin-whales 

 so differently coloured as the black-and-white male observed 

 in 1841 by Schlegel, and the two more or less grey males 

 described by Companyo and Eschricht, to one and the same 

 species, Phy solus antiquorum^ Gray. 



Under these circumstances it happens rather fortunately that 

 the attempts made during the last two years to establish a 

 regular fishery of fin- whales and humpbacks in the sea round 

 Iceland have provided us with some means of answering this 

 question and of forming a tolerably well-grounded idea of the 

 extent of .the variations of colour in one species at least; for 

 Mr. S. Hallas, surgeon to the whaler ^ Thomas Roys,' has 

 from his cruise of last summer (1867) brought home with him 

 descriptions and measurements of several specimens of that 

 fin-whale which his ship had most frequently fallen in with, 

 viz. the one which the Icelanders call " Steypirey^r ;" and his 

 statements have a particular interest, as they furnish us with 

 some useful information about a species hitherto only imper- 

 fectly known. 



From Mr. Hallas's notes on the different individuals which 

 he had the opportunity of examining closely, it appears that 

 the " SteypireySr " is a very dark-coloured whale. The upper 

 parts have a blackish-grey colour, in which somewhat lighter 

 stains or specks are sometimes found ; down the sides the 



