40 DR. J. E. GRAY ON A NEW WHALE. {Jan. 10, 
have a large black ocellus, surrounded by a white margin, and ex- 
tending from the fourth to the tenth soft ray of the dorsal. When 
these fish frequent brackish water, they generally become of a deep 
purple colour. ; 
Very common in all pieces of fresh water, and excellent eating 
when of a large size. They take a bait freely, but are not so easily 
captured by a net, as they appear to dive down into the mud. 
Erropius MACULATUS, Bloch. 
Pulluttay meen (Mal.). 
B.vi. D.@. P14. V.>. AZ. C.16. 1.1.35. TL. tr. 21. 
Length of specimens from 1,5, to 354; inches. 
Having captured about fifty specimens, on July 15th, 1863, from 
the fort ditch, for the purpose of minutely examining their colours, 
no two could be said to be exactly similar. The seventeen or 
eighteen rows of golden spots were more or less apparent in all: 
but in some the three blotches on the side were black, in others of 
emerald-green, whilst all intermediate shades were perceptible ; some 
were glossed over with purple, which was absent in others. 
Common in every paddy-field, tank, or piece of fresh water; and 
even occasionally in the backwater within the influence of the tides. 
Eaten by the natives, but, as they rarely exceed 3 inches in length, 
are not esteemed by the Europeans. 
2. Notice or A New WHALEBONE WHALE FROM THE COAST 
or DEVONSHIRE, PROPOSED TO BE CALLED EsCHRICHTIUS 
roBustus. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., etc. 
A better proof could not be required of the little attention that 
has hitherto been paid to the study of the Whales of the seas sur- 
rounding the British islands than the fact that, almost immediately 
after the appearance of my paper on British Whales, in which I had 
doubled the number of species that had before been recorded as 
found on our coast, a bone has been discovered showing most dis- 
tinctly that a species of Whalebone Whale which had only been 
described from an imperfect skeleton buried in the sand on the coast 
of Sweden is also an inhabitant of our seas. 
Mr. Pengelly has kindly brought to me one of the middle cervical 
vertebrze of a Finner Whale, which was washed ashore at Babbacombe 
Bay, in Torbay, on the coast of Devonshire, on the 24th of Novem- 
ber 1861. It is so different in its form and proportions from the 
cervical vertebrae of any of the species of British Whales which I 
described in my paper on those animals (printed in the ‘ Proceedings’ 
of the Society for 1864), that I lose no time in bringing a description 
of it before the Society ; for, as I have already observed, I consider 
that we must treat remains of Whales as we do fossil animals— 
describe them from a single bone, if no more can be procured, if, 
after careful study and comparison, we are satisfied that the bone in 
