516 PROF. FLOWER ON RUDOLPHl's RORQUAL. [Nov. 20, 



The osteological characters of this species of Rorqual are well 

 known, from the description by Rudolphi^ of a specimen stranded 

 in 1819 on the coast of Holstein, the skeleton of which is still pre- 

 served in the Berlin Anatomical Museum ; from the description which 

 I gave in the ' Proceedings ' of tliis Society for 1864 of two skeletons, 

 one in the Leiden and the other in the Brussels Museum ; and from 

 the subsequent figures and descriptions of the same specimens pub- 

 lished in the great work on the Osteography of the Cetacea by Van 

 Beneden and Gervais. More recently P. Fischer has given some 

 notes upon a young individual, stranded July 29th, 18/4, between 

 Bidart and Biarritz (Basses-Pyrenees), the skeleton of which is pre- 

 served in the Museum of Bayoune^; and Professor Turner has 

 described an older one (about 38 feet long) which was captured near 

 Bo'ness, in the Firth of Forth, in September 1872% the skeleton of 

 which is now in the Anatomical Museum of the University of 

 Edinburgh. 



This is certainly the least common of the four species of Rorquals 

 known to inhaliit the North Atlantic, and the one of the occurrence 

 of which in British waters there are fewest records. In fact, except 

 the one just mentioned as described by Professor Turner, there is no 

 other well-authenticated case ; although it is possible that the Whale 

 stranded at Charmouth, in Dorset, in 1840, described by Sweeting 

 (P. Z. S. 1840, p. ll)^ was one. Unfortunately none of its bones 

 were ]ireserved to authenticate its specific characters ; and it might 

 have been a young individual of one of the larger species, B. musculus 

 or B. sibbaldii. 



There has been considerable confusion about the nomenclature of 

 this species, as of most other Whales. 



The first specimen which came distinctly under the notice of any 

 zoologist was that mentioned above, carefully described by Rudolphi, 

 who, however, erroneously identified it with B. rostrata of Fabricius 

 and Hunter, a distinct and well-known species. The skeleton was 

 afterwards described under the name of " Rorqual du Nord " by 

 Cuvier^ who compared and contrasted it with the " Rorqual de la 

 Mediterranee," which is now known as B. musculus. Lesson, in 

 1828^ translated Cuvier's name into Latin, calling it Balanoptera 

 horealis, but including imder the same designation another specimen 

 now known to belong to a different species ; but still Rudolphi's Whale 

 was the type. Fischer'' also use? the saine name for a number of 

 Whales of several species, including Rudolphi's, which is placed 

 second on the list, the first being an example of B. rostrata, mis- 

 called by Albers B. boops. 



' Abhandl. der koiiigl. Akad. zu Berlin, 1820, p. 27. 



- " Cotaces du Sud-ouest de la France," Actes de la Society Linu(5enne de 

 Bordeaux, t. xxxv. 1881, p. 81; also ' Comptes Eendus,' t. Ixxxiii. p. 1298, 

 Dec. 27, 1876, and ' Journal de Zoologie.' v. p. 4(52, 187f>. 



' Journ. Anatomy and Physiology, April 1882, p. 471. 



■I See also Mag. Nat. Hist. 1840, p. 342, and Arr.. k Mag. Nat. Fist. vi. p. 72, 

 Sopt, 1841. 



5 ' Ossemens Fossiles,' v. p. 564 (1823). 



" ' Hist. Nat. des Cetaces ' (Complement de BulTon), p. 342. 



1 ' Sj-nopsis Mammalium,' p. 524 (1829). 



