1865.] DR. H. BURMEISTER ON A NEW FIN-WHALE. 713 
yield perhaps the most complete skeleton of a Cetacean ever disco- 
vered) described by William Sharp MacLeay. As it is, my feeble 
efforts must suffice ; and being under deep obligations to the greatest 
naturalist Australia ever had, I wish to pay a slight tribute to his 
memory by proposing the name of Huphysetes macleayi for this new 
species. 
DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES 
(taken from the photographs forwarded by Mr. Krefft). 
Fig. 1. Outline of the whole animal. 
2. Snout seen from below. 
3. Upper surface of skull. 
4. Under surface of skull. 
5. Side view of skull, showing teeth in situ. 
6. Bones of the pectoral limb. (Added from a photograph received sub- 
sequently to the original communication.) 
14. On a suppos—ED New Species OF FIN-WHALE FROM THE 
Coast or Sourn America. By Dr. H. Burmetster, For. 
Mems.* 
I now send you the drawing of a bladebone of another species of 
Whale, which I received a few days since from a friend of mine for 
our Museum. The bone is taken from a skeleton of an animal cast 
on shore on the coast of the Samboramban Basin, near the mouth 
of the river Salado, to the south of Buenos Ayres; but as the people 
in the vicinity found that the vertebrae were very good to make chairs 
for their houses, they cut off the spines, and brought home only the 
bodies ; each of them is said to be 13 foot high. This bladebone 
was sent by the keeper of the farm there to the owner in Buenos 
Ayres, who has promised me to write immediately to his officer to 
send all the bones not yet broken to Buenos Ayres, when I hope I 
shall be able to send you further information. But the skull is said 
to be already entirely broken up and destroyed. 
The bladebone is of an enormous size; and therefore I thought, 
before I had seen it, that it might belong to a true Balena ; but now 
that it is in my hands I find that it must belong to a Fin-Whale, 
because it is much broader than high. As you say in your paper 
that Megaptera has no coracoid process, or has only a very small one, 
this bladebone cannot belong to that genus ; and therefore I suppose, 
from the enormous size, it may be that of a species of Sibbaldius, to 
which genus belong the largest Baleenopteridee. It seems to be an 
unknown species, and, as I find no mention in your papers of such 
a Whale in this part of the southern hemisphere, I propose the 
name of Sibbaldius antarcticus for it ; but you may change the name 
if you believe another more convenient. 
I give you the description of the bone. It is mostly flat, and has 
the general figure of the third part of a circle, being half as high as 
broad. The outer margin is regularly curved, with an indication of 
* Extracted from a letter addressed by the author to Dr. J. E. Gray. 
