Dr. J. E. Gray on a Neio-Zealand Whale. 317 



ft. in. 

 Length along curve of back from end of 



caudal flipper to snout 16 2| 



Straight 15 6 



From snout to blowhole 2 5 



From snout to eye 3 



From end of caudal to dorsal 4 9 



Girth at pectoral 10 



Anterior margin of dorsal 1 3 



Height of dorsal 7 



Breadth „ 1 



Pectoral flipper, length 2 7 



breadth 8 



Caudal flipper, length 1 6 



breadth 4 8 



Weight 27 cwt." 



Mr. Hutton has considered this whale to be my PJiysalus 

 antarcttcus, noticed in the ' Zoology of the Erebus and Terror/ 

 from a quantity of yellowish white baleen sold as New- 

 Zealand whalebone. But the small size of the whale, only 

 16 feet long, and the baleen being described as yellow with a 

 narrow black margin, makes me think it probable that the 

 animal is the one which yields the long slender whalebone on 

 which I established the pigmy whale {Balcena marginata), 

 which, we know, inhabits New-Zealand, because Governor 

 Grey found its skull on the island of Kawau ; it was figured 

 by Dr. Hector, and was constituted by me a genus, Neohalcena 

 (see Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1870, v. p. 221, vi. p. 155, 

 figs. 1 & 2). 



If this should prove to be the case, it will be a very 

 important discovery ; for it will prove that the genus Neohalcena 

 forms a gi'oup intermediate between the true whales and the 

 finners [Physalidce). The animal, though it has the throat and 

 front part of chest plaited like the finners, has the large head 

 and short body of the wliales, the head being one fourth the 

 entire length, and the caudal fin in breadth rather more than one 

 fourth the entire length from end of tail. 



It is to be regretted that Mr. Hutton did not describe the 

 shape of the baleen — if it was short and broad like that of the 

 finners, or long and slender like that of the Balainida3. 



The baleen on which I established Physalus antarcticus is 

 short and broad, like that of a true Physalus^ and evidently 

 belonged to a much larger whale than the one from Otago 

 Head. 



Neobala^na, although it has the whalebone of the true 

 Balfenida^, has a very ])cculiar kind of skull and ear-bone ; and 

 1 should not be at all astonished to find that it has the plaited 



