1864.) pr. J. ©. GRAY ON THE BONNET OF THE WHALE. 171 
The lower layer is attached to the skin of the whale, a part of the 
skin being attached to the inner surface of the mass or bonnet, as it 
is called. 
On showing the specimen to a foreign zoologist, he stated that it 
was an excrescence on the skin of a whale, formed by the adhesion 
of the barnacles called Coronula, and that the irregularities on the 
surface of the bonnet were caused by the attachment and wearing- 
action of these animals. 
This is quite a mistake, the Coronule sink themselves into the epi- 
dermis of the whale, as is also the case with the genus Tudicinella. 
I have seen numerous specimens of both these animals in situ, and 
the skin round the cirhipedes is scarcely altered in structure, and 
offers no resemblance to the horny excrescence called the bonnet. 
Any one who examines the bonnet will find that the plate of horn 
of which it is formed is plicated and folded when deposited ; and this 
was first procured from the whaler ; but this may be only because 
the hollow on the surface forms a good hiding for them; and I think 
the supposition that they are the origin of the wart or horn requires 
Mr. Holdsworth has since sent to the Museum a much smaller 
Specimen, also obtained at the Sandwich Islands, which is oblong, 
elongate, and more symmetrical ; but the upper surface is not so 
evenly channelled. It is 6 inches long and 24 wide. It is spoken 
of by the whalers as a wart on the tip of the nose, and is commonly 
called the “ Whale’s bonnet.” 
I do not recollect observing any account of this “ donnet,” or giant 
corn, or rudimentary frontal horn, as it may be regarded in any ac- 
count of the “ Right Whale,” nor in that of the « Spermaceti Whale.” 
I have specially searched for it again in the works by persons who 
have seen these Whales alive, but without success. 
It has been suggested by Mr. Holdsworth that the bonnet may 
be a natural development, and possibly characteristic of the Species ; 
he thinks that the « pale prominence” on the nose of Balena ant- 
arctica, as figured in ‘ Fauna Japonica,’ pls. 28 & 29, may be intended 
to represent it. In the description this part is only described as 
“une forte proéminence teinte de blanc.’ 
In the excellent drawing of the male Whale from the coast of 
New Zealand, which I figured under the name of Balena antipo- 
darum, in Dieffenbach’s ‘New Zealand,’ vol. ii. t. 1, there is a 
rough roundish prominence on the front of the lower jaw, as well as 
on the front of the upper one. 
I believe that a prominence of the kind is to be observed in all the 
species of the genus Balena, although I have never seen them de- 
scribed as hard and horny ; but that is no reason why this may not 
be the case. 
