
1870. ] DR. J. E. GRAY ON NEW TORTOISES. 653 
fought over. The creature must have been either sick or foolish ; 
for it wandered close to the shore just round the rocks at the en- 
trance of the small harbour. A Manillaman observed it, and, getting 
a hammer, rushed into the water and struck it a severe blow on the 
head. He then hailed some Chinese to assist in getting it ashore. 
It measured, I was told on tolerably good authority, about 20 feet, 
and had no fin on its back. I saw parts of its belly, and observed 
that it was plaited across. Its colour was of a leaden black above, 
and whitish beneath. I saw one man carrying away its pectoral 
flippers, and two others its tail. I seized a piece of the baleen and 
sent it to the British Museum, but it unfortunately never reached 
its destination. Viewed exteriorly, it was like a high comb, the 
teeth (so to speak) being about 3 inches high and set about one-sixth 
of an inch apart, worn into bristles at their tips. Viewed from 
inside, you saw nothing but close-set whitish coarse hairs or bristles. 
Examined separately, each plate of baleen was shaped like a lob-sided 
triangle leaning outwards, coloured blackish blue like ordinary 
whalebone, and broken up at the top for about an inch, and to a less 
extent along the inner edge, into coarse whitish hair. The width 
of each plate at the base was 1°25 inch. There was a sheen of purple 
about the dark parts of the animal, especially on the flippers and 
tail. 
The gunboat ‘Flamer’ came into Takow a day or two after the 
occurrence above related ; and her commander, Lieutenant Eaton, 
told me that he had met a large number of small Whales between 
our port and the Pescadores. He mistook them for a long line of 
breakers where the chart showed no shoal. He kept away, fearing 
that there might be some mistake in the chart, when some of the 
brutes began to throw their tails and cut antics in the water. He 
then saw that the danger was nothing more than a school of Whales. 
He said there must have been about fifty, most of them averaging 
20 feet or more. He did not observe that they had any fin on 
the back. They spouted water. 
From the nature of the baleen, our species must belong to the 
Baleenopteride ; and from the shape of its flippers and want of a 
conspicuous dorsal fin it must be a Megaptera. It is probable that 
it will be found to be the same species that occurs in the seas of 
South Japan. 
10. Notes on Tortoises in the British Museum, with Descrip- 
tions of some New Species. By Dr. J. E. Gray, 
F.R.S. &e. 
(Plates XXXIII., XXXIV.) 
The genus Peltastes in my paper on Tortoises, read in March 1869 *, 
contains many species which are not well defined; and therefore I 
* See P. Z. 8. 1869, p. 171. 
