by MM. Van Beneden and Gervais. 203 
six times that length, or it would not be worth the whalers 
collecting for sale. M. Gervais erroneously states that this 
genus and species was founded on an error, caused by a pho- 
tograph; but that is entirely a mistake, caused by the very 
carelessness in compiling to which I have before referred. It 
is very true that I did at first think that the genus Macleayius 
was peculiar for having the atlas free from the rest of the 
cervical bones; when I discovered the error of this opinion, 
and received additional photographs, I stated, * but still the 
form of the atlas is so distinct from any other known genus of 
Balænidæ, that I believe the Australian Right Whale will be 
a distinct genus, to which the name of Macleayius may be 
appropriately applied, and it is, no doubt, a true Balena" 
(Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 371). M. Gervais further 
says, with regard to this whale, * Nous ne voyons pas de motif 
de ne pas rapporter cette région cervicale à la Balena anti- 
podarum en attendant que l'on ait des renseignements précis 
sur ses caracteres distinctifs;" but I think that if any one will 
compare M. Gervais's figure of the cervical mass of B. anti- 
podarum, given in pl. 3.4igs. 4 & 5 of his work, with the 
figures of the cervical mass of the Australian whale figured 
in my Catalogue, p. 105. f. 10, 11, p. 372. f. 74, 75, he will find 
that little reliance can be placed on M. Gervais's remark. In 
the New-Zealand whale the upper lateral process of the atlas is 
narrow, like the same process in the Greenland and Mediterra- 
nean whales, while in the Australian whale this process is par- 
ticularly high and wide; and the lower lateral processes are 
equally distinct and peculiar. And I think that the mass of 
cervical vertebre dredged up at Lyme Regis, and figured in 
my ‘Catalogue of Seals and Whales,’ p. 83. f. 8, whieh M. 
Van Beneden refers to B. biscayensis, and at the same time 
says that it is so different from B. mysticetus, is the most nearly 
allied to the cervical vertebre of the genus Macleayius, and 
