226 DR. J. E. GRAY ON BRITISH CETACEA. [May 24, 
gradually diverging behind to a distance of about 3 inches. Baleen 
bluish black and yellowish white. Female 42 feet long, weighing 
25 tons. Blubber varied in thickness from 3 to 5 inches ; yielded 
three hogsheads of oil.” —Sweeting, Mag. N. Hist. 1840, p. 342. 
The accounts in the ‘ Mag. of Nat. Hist.’ and in the ‘ Proc. Zool. 
Soc.’ 1840, p. 11, are evidently from the same animal, but there are 
some discrepancies between them. Mr. Sweeting says, breadth 
21 feet; Mr. Yarrell says, girth 21 feet. Mr. Sweeting, total weight 
25 tons; Mr. Yarrell, probable weight between 20 and 25 tons. 
Mr. Sweeting, length of skeleton 41, and head 11 feet; Mr. Yarrell, 
40, and head i0 feet. Mr. Sweeting says, for the discrepancy, ‘‘ As 
to the number of vertebra, &c., I am of opinion that this species 
has not been described before, and I have proposed for it the name 
Balenoptera tenuirostris.”’ (Mag. N. Hist., 24th March, 1840.) 
The skeleton here described was sold, about sixteen years ago, for 
five pounds, to Mr. Freane, and it was stated to have been sent to 
London as a present to the British Museum, but it has never been 
received, and I cannot find any further account of it; probably it 
was sold for manure. 
One of the true Whales, Balena australis (Temm. Fauna Japo- 
nica, t. 28, 29), has the first rib with a double head (fig. 19, a 
sketch by Gerrard from the skeleton in Mus. Leyden.). 
Fig. 19. 
First Rib of Balena australis. 
b. Dorsal fin two-thirds of the entire length from the nose ; cervical 
vertebre sometimes united. 
5. BAL NOPTERA. 
Pectoral fin moderate. Dorsal fin falcate, two-thirds of the entire 
length from nose. Vertebree 50; last very small. The first pair 
of ribs undivided near the condyle. 
The lateral process of the second cervical vertebra elongate, pierced 
at the base ; of the third, fourth, and fifth cervical elongate, slender, 
separate ; the lower with an angular bend below. The front ribs 
simple, thick, with only a slight swelling on the inner edge near 
the condyle. Tympanic bones obovate, short, veutricose. 
The lateral process of the second cervical vertebra expanded, broad,, 
with a large ovate perforation in the middle of its base; the upper 
and lower margins being broad and of nearly equal width, the upper 
