A List of the Whales and Dolphins of the 

 South Australian Coast in the Public 

 Museum, Adelaide. 



By A. ZiETZ, Assistant Museum-Director. 



[Read December 3rd, 1889.] 



FA]MILY BAL.ENID.E (Whalebone Whales). 



1. Neobal.ena margin ATA, Gray. Pigmy Whale. 



Of this species three individuals in the flesh have been received 

 at the Museum, two from Kangaroo Island, and one very young 

 animal from Encounter Bay ; besides which there is an ear-bone 

 from the former locality. The species was first found on the New 

 Zealand coast, and was described in 1870 from some plates of 

 baleen in the British Museum and from the skull and baleen of a 

 small individual, 16 feet long, that was cast ashore on the Island 

 of Kawau f it was considered by Dr. Gray to represent in the 

 Southern Seas the Great Right Whale of the Arctic Ocean. At 

 a later period, it was found on the coast of AVestern Australia \ 

 and quite recently in our own waters. 



The external characters of this w^hale were unknown till the 

 receipt of the specimens at the Adelaide Museum ; two of which 

 have been photographed and exact measurements taken from the 

 fresh animals ; thus adding valuable information to our know- 

 ledge of this species. 



The species-name is in reference to the outer blackish margin 

 on the baleen. 



2. Megaptera boops, Linn. Rorqual. 



To this species probably belongs the whale which was stranded 

 at Corny Point, the skeleton of which is displayed in the W^hale- 

 Shed, annexed to the Museum, as Mr. G. Beazley, our taxider- 

 mist, informs me that the underside of this specimen w^as very 

 strongly folded in a longitudinal direction, commencing from the 

 anterior point of the lower jaw. 



According to Professor W. H. Flower it is uncertain whether 

 all the folloAving specimens, referred to in his Catalogue (British 

 Mus., 1885), belong to one or several species. If to more than 

 one their distinctive characters have not been defined. The 

 British Museum possesses examples from Greenland, California, 

 and New Zealand. 



'■■"Hector, New Zealand Cetaceans; Phil. Soc, Wellmgton, 1872. 



