BAL-EKOPTEBA. 567 



3. B. mmmdus. — Length 60 to 65 feet, rarely exceeding 70. Very 

 elongate. Height to total length 1 : 6^ or 6|. Greyisli slate above and 

 on left lower jaw; below, with right lower jaw, inside of flippers, and 

 lower side of tail-flukes, white. Flippers g total length, jaws ^, 

 Vertebrae about &2, ribs 15 pairs. 



4. B. sibhaldi. — Length 70 to 80 feet, i-arely exceeding 85. Height 

 to total length 1 : 5^. Dark bluish grey, with small whitish spots on 

 breast ; lower edges and inner sides of flippers white. Flippers y total 

 length, jaws -|. Vertebrae about 63, ribs 15-16 pairs. 



Curiously enough, four species have been indicated more or less 

 distinctly in the Indian Ocean, viz; : B. indica by Blyth, B. sclilegdi, 

 from Java, by Flower, B. hhjthi and B. edeni by Anderson. The 

 first is of; the same size as the great B. sibJxddi; the second has 

 been clearly identified by its describer with B. borealis ; B. bhjild 

 cori'esponds in size with B. musculus ; and the published figures 

 representing bones of B. edeni are referred by Van Beneden without 

 doubt {op. cit. p. 186) to B. rostrata. It should, however, be added 

 that Van Beneden, in another part of the same work (p. 155), appeal's 

 to refer the same B. edeni to B. borealis, and that there is no 

 evidence as to the locality whence came the few vertebrae to which 

 Anderson (An. Zoo). Ees. p. 564) gave the name o£ B. bh/thi; it is 

 uncertain whether these bones are of Indian or even of Asiatic 

 origin. The identifications of B. indica and B. edeni are probable, 

 but both have been found in Indian seas in the summer, when, 

 according to the theory of migration, they should be in colder 

 regions ; and B. edeni, although agreeing in most characters with 

 B. rostrata, is larger. For the present, therefore, I leave the two 

 undoubted Indian species under the names by which they were 

 described. 



The Fin- whales feed on fish and Crustacea, and are found some- 

 times solitary, sometimes in shoals. 



Synopsis of Indian Species. 



Adults 80 feet or more in length B. indica, p. 567. 



Adults about 40 feet long B. edeni, p. 568. 



377. Balaenoptera indica. Tlie great Indian Fin-ivhale. 



Balaenoptera indica, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xxviii, p. 488 (1859) (conf. 

 op. cit. xxi, p. 358, xxii, p. 414, xxix, p. 451); id. Cat. p. 93; 

 id. Mam. Birds Burma, p. 34 ; Jerdon, Mam. p. 161 ; Anderson, 

 An. Zool. Bes. p. 551 ; Murray, Vert. Zoul, Sind, p. 41, pi. vi 

 (skull) ; W. Sclater, Cat. p. 313. 



External chai'acters unknown. Described from two mandibular 

 rami, a rib, the right radius, and 5 vertebrae preserved in the 

 Indian Museum, Calcutta. The character by which the species is 

 especially distinguished, according to Blyth, is the slenderness of 

 the mandible. 



Dimensions. Total length of adult 80 to 90 feet. The lower* 

 jaw of a s])eciinea said to be 84 feet long measured nearly 21 feet 



