934 Transactions.—Zoology. 
in the same museum is the type specimen of Lubalena australis, from the 
Cape of Good Hope, which is 49 feet in length, the skull measuring 14} 
feet. In both skeletons the number of dorsal and lumbar vertebrae is the 
same, but in the former only nine caudal vertebrse have chevron bones and 
twelve are without, while in Balena australis thirteen have chevron bones and 
there are twelve without, thus having four more caudal segments than in 
the New Zealand specimen ; but as the few other divergent characters of the 
two skeletons are within the limits of individual variation, it is probable 
that the above difference is due to the imperfection of the shorter skeleton, 
some of the chevron bones and terminal ossicles having been lost. 
— Te other differences are stated by Van Beneden and Gervais to be 
as follows :—* 
The mandible has a smaller coronoid process but has a better developed 
articular surface in B. australis, and the superior maxillary bone is stronger, 
and the temporal bone notably more massive. In B. antipodarum the beak 
is a little more curved. There is also a slight difference in the size of 
the arm bones, and the acromion process of the scapula, present in B. 
australis, is represented only by a tubercle or ridge in the other skeleton. 
This latter character cannot, however, be considered as impor- 
tant, for in the same museum is the skeleton of another whale (Megaptera 
lalandii) in which the scapule of the opposite sides differ in this respect. 
After examining the skeletons referred to, and being familiar with the 
variations presented among the bones of the same species scattered about 
the whaling stations on the New Zealand coast, I do not attach much 
importance to these distinctions, but at the same time it must be noted that 
in the skeleton of a black whale obtained on the coast of Canterbury by Dr. 
von Haast, and now mounted in the British Museum as the type of Macleayius 
australiensis, Gray, the total number of vertebra is also 54. The strong 
curvature which has been given to the vertebral column in mounting this 
fine skeleton, gives it, at first sight, a very different aspect from the Paris 
specimens, but closer examination proves it to agree closely in all charac- 
ters but the number of terminal caudal ossicles, with Eubalena australis. 
In the Dunedin Museum, the skeleton of a young black whale obtained 
on the Otago coast, has been mounted by Professor Hutton, and he informs 
me that in this specimen also the number of vertebral segments is 54. 
The smaller number of vertebre thus appears constant in the only 
three complete skeletons of the New Zealand Eubalena which are available ; 
whereas in the skeleton of the Cape Eubalena, of which there are two in 
Paris, old and young, one young at Leyden, and one, also young, in the 
7 La ci. p. 53. T 
zs 
