328 Prof. J. Reinhardt on the Fin- Whale 



might possibly be a tliird similar species ; but even then it 

 would not be certain that the Icelandic whale is a new spe- 

 cies ; for there is a fin-whale (the Balcenoptera Sihhaldiij Gray) 

 different from the Ostend whale, and which Malm supposes to 

 be also different from the species described by him, of the ex- 

 ternal characters of which we know nothing, and it is possible 

 that the " Steypirey^r" may be this very species. 



Fortunately, however, we know more than the mere ex- 

 ternal characters of the " Steypirey^r "; for Mr. Hallas has 

 presented the Zoological Museum of Copenhagen with the 

 hyoid bone and the first cervical vertebra of a male " Steypi- 

 rey^r " nearly 74 Danish feet long ; the Museum has, further, 

 purchased of the Danish Fishing Company the skull of the 

 same individual, wanting only the lower jaw ; finally, we have 

 from a third source received trustworthy information about the 

 number of the ribs and the vertebrae : and thus we are in pos- 

 session of most of the data required to clear away that uncer- 

 tainty and doubt which could not be removed while we had 

 only the description of the colour and the measurements. 



have its place, and tlie name Sihhaldius must be retained for that one the 

 type of which is the Ostend whale. 



But, as I before said, these two genera seem to me to be rather super- 

 fluous ; indeed I should prefer to consider even the best-characterized of 

 the various genera of fin- whales that have been proposed of late only as 

 sections of the genus Bal<mioptera {Pterohalcena, Eschr.). Cetologists 

 have gradually gone so far as to make a genus of every well-foimded 

 species of fin- whale in our northern seas. Accordingly the generic cha- 

 racters coincide to a great extent with the specific ones ; and it is hardly 

 to be expected that those characters the presence of one of which seems 

 now to imply the presence of the other, will also prove to be always con- 

 nected with each other when we obtain a more accurate knowledge of the 

 fin-whales of the other great seas. In some cases generic characters have 

 also been taken from parts of the organization the value of which as such 

 are at least very doiibtful. I mention, as an instance, that one of the 

 generic characters for the genus Physalus is taken from the sternum, 

 though, from the observations now before us, it would only seem possible 

 to infer that the shape of this bone varies so much in different individuals 

 belonging to this genus, that it is even doubtful whether it can furnish us 

 with certain specific characters. Even the character taken from the 

 shape of the first rib (whether it is double-headed or not) cannot perhaps 

 in all cases be so thoroughly depended upon as is usually supposed ; and it 

 would not be amiss to recall the fact that Eschricht pointed out, more 

 than twenty years ago, that he had found a slight indication of a bifur- 

 cation in tlie upper end of the first rib of a whale which he and, more 

 recently, my distinguished friend Mr. W. II. Flower without any hesita- 

 tion have referred to Balanoptera antiquorum, viz. the whale stranded at 

 Katwijk aan Zee in December 1841, and that he also found the first rib 

 on the left side of an Orca-skeleton from Greenland perfectly distinctly 

 forked. Thus the modern genera can hardly be said to be well founded 

 as yet ; and as the fin-whales hitherto known are not so numerous that 

 there is any fear of losing a general view of them when they are kept 

 together, there seems at present to be no practical necessity for them. 



