1864.] IN THE MUSEUMS OF HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. 407 
border and a concave thin edge, their flat surface having somewhat 
the form of a crescent with truncated ends, 15" long by 6" broad. 
Their greatest thickness at the convex border is about 13. The 
ends are not alike, one being narrower and thicker, the other broader 
and flatter. The two bones are precisely similar. 
Of the generic affinity of this Whale with the previously described 
specimen in the Leyden Museum from the Zuyder Zee, with Rudolphi’s 
specimen at Berlin, and with the great Ostend Whale there can be no 
doubt. But is it specifically related to all or any of these? If this 
can be proved, the fact must have an important bearing on the dis- 
tribution of the Fin-Whales, the coasts of European Holland and of 
its colony in the Indian Archipelago being as remote geographically 
and physically as almost any two spots upon the surface of the globe. 
Of course, to prove the absolute specific identity of two animals from 
the skeletons alone would be impossible. With only so much to 
found an opinion upon, all we can say, after having compared them 
bone by bone and found them agreeing in every particular, is that 
there is no proof of their being of different species, and that there- 
fore, in the absence of other evidence, we are obliged to consider 
them as zoologically identical. 
In the present case I have carefully compared the skeletons (that 
from Java and those from the European coast) together. I have 
even had the advantage of placing many of the bones of the two 
in the Leyden Museum side by side; and I confess that, allowing 
for difference of age, it is difficult to fix upon any characters in 
which they decidedly differ. The stylo-hyoids in the first, it 
may be said, are broader than in the Berlin or Brussels specimens, 
the sternum larger and of more definite cross-like form than in the 
Leyden skeleton, the transverse processes of the vertebree are more 
developed and united at their ends than in either of these ; but such 
characters are of no value for specific distinction. One, however, 
does appear to me of some importance ; and that is the form of the 
orbital plate of the frontal, so decidedly narrower at the outer end 
in the Javan cranium than in the three specimens from Europe ; 
but it is possible that even here age may cause the difference. 
Eschricht has laid great stress upon the little dependence that can 
be placed upon the proportions of the bones of the head in making 
out the specific characters of Whales. It is rather curious that the 
tympanic bones, though agreeing in general form, are actually smaller 
in the Java than in the Zuyder Zee skeleton, being less in length by 
0-3, and in breadth by nearly the same amount. 
As I have said before, I cannot but regard this skeleton as having 
nearly attained its adult dimensions. Besides the special age-cha- 
racteristics before pointed out, the general character of the vertebral 
column, especially the great development of the processes compared 
with the body of the bones, all indicate a condition approaching 
maturity. Whatever may be said, therefore, of the preceding speci- 
men, I cannot identify the present one with the Ostend Whale: the 
difference of size alone appears to preclude it. Moreover, although 
a comparison of osteological details of the immature bones of the 
other specimens with those of the adult Ostend example was not 
