346 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Whalebone- Whales, 



specimen is short, and that it increases in size, and especially in 

 length, much more rapidly than the rest of the body. This is 

 very apparent in the Right or Greenland Whale, where the head 

 of the adult is two- fifths, while that of the new-born is only 

 two-sevenths, of the entire length of the animal. These differ- 

 ences are shown by Eschricht in his figures. The head of the 

 new-born and of the adult Cape Whalebone- Whale show the 

 game difference; but the head in both states is smaller, compared 

 with the entire length of the animal, than in the northern or 

 Greenland species. 



2. That the bones of the Whalebone-Whales in the very 

 young state are the same in number, and nearly the same in 

 form, as in the adult animal, the bones only becoming more or 

 less completely ossified, which they appear to do very slowly, 

 and in some species even more slowly than in others ; so that the 

 notion that the number of vertebraj increases with the growth 

 of the animal, which has been entertained by some naturalists, 

 is a mistake. 



3. It also appears that certain parts which become ossified 

 in most kinds of Whalebone- Whales do not become so in 

 others. Thus the lateral processes of the cervical vertebrae of 

 Megaptera, Benedenia, and Physalus seem to be nearly of the 

 same form in the young and cartilaginous state ; that is to say, 

 they have the usual form of these bones in the Balcnopteridce ; 

 and though the entire lateral process becomes ossified in Phij- 

 salus and Sibbaldus, the end of the process remains cartilaginous 

 at least to a much greater age, if not always, in the genera 

 Megaptera and Benedenia. Naturalists observing this apparently 

 imperfect development of the bones in the latter genus, have 

 been induced to believe that it arose from the youth of the spe- 

 cimens observed, instead of being a peculiarity of the genera, 

 overlooking the fact that the skeletons of the oldest Megapterce 

 that have been examined show the same apparently imperfect 

 development and truncated form of the bones. 



4. The general form of the baleen, the comparative thickness 

 of the enamel, and the fineness or coarseness of the internal 

 fibres which form the marginal fringe, and the internal structure 

 as shown by the microscope, all present good characters for de- 

 termining the species and for separating the Whalebone-Whales 

 into natural groups, as I have shown in the ^ Zoology of the 

 Erebus and Terror.^ 



The qualities of the whalebone or baleen from various loca- 

 lities, and hence from different kinds of Whales, have been ob- 

 served, and have led to their employment for different purposes 

 by the handicraftsman ; according to their goodness and rarity, 

 they fetch very different prices in the market — an instance of 



