418 Dr. A. Giintlier on some new 



1. B. intermedia. The largest ; 58 feet long, with a head 14 

 feet in length and 6 feet in breadth, and 8 feet high at the 

 middle of the body ; has the most robust figure, most bulky- 

 cranium ; and its vertebras number at least sixty-six (besides the 

 sixty-one preserved there being five to six wanting), which 

 number may be divided into seven cervical, fifteen dorsal, six- 

 teen lumbar, and sixteen caudal with spines beneath. 



2. B, patachonica. Rather smaller, although not shorter ; 

 but has a more slender figure and less bulky head, 5^ feet broad, 

 although also 14 feet in length ; of the fifty-eight and a half 

 vertebrae preserved, seven are cervical, sixteen dorsal, seventeen 

 lumbar, and thirteen caudal with under-spines, also wanting 

 the five to six terminal vertebra3. This species is described in 

 the ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 1865, p. 191. 



3. B. honaerensis. The smallest, 30 to 32 feet in length, 

 with a head 7 feet long and 4 feet wide, and a vertebral cokimn 

 of forty-eight vertebrae, divided into seven cervical, eleven 

 dorsal, twelve lumbar, and eighteen caudal ; but only the nine 

 anterior have under-spines. The skeleton of this species was 

 described by me in the ' Proc. Zool. Soc' 1867, p. 707. 



Postscript. — In the description, instead of nine under-spines 

 of the tail it should be twelve, as I have lately found three more 

 bones on the skeleton, each open and composed of two separate 

 pieces ; the number of vertebrae is exactly the same as in the 

 European species. Mr. Turner of Edinburgh is of Dr. Gray's 

 opinion, and separates Sihhaldius from Physalus. I have seen 

 the Ostend specimen of Sihhaldius at Leipsic, and cannot under- 

 stand how M. van Beneden could unite this gigantic animal 

 with the slender Physalus^ which I know very well, from the 

 daily inspection of the skeleton in the museum of Greifswald. 



Buenos Ayres, H. 13. 



September 25, 1872. 



LX. — On some new Species of Reptiles and Fishes collected hy 

 J. Brencliley^ Esq. By Dr. Albert Gunther, F.E.S. 



The following diagnoses are taken from an account of the 

 reptiles and fishes collected by J. Brenchley, Esq., in Poly- 

 nesia, the East Indies, and Central Asia, and kindly presented 

 by him to the Trustees of the British Museum. This ac- 

 count, which contains more detailed descriptions, was prepared 

 some time ago for a large work which Mr. Brenchley has in 

 the press ; but as the execution of the numerous plates with 

 which the work will be illustrated may cause a further delay 

 in its publication, I have thought it best to publish now the 

 following shorter notices. 



