4 Transactions.— Zoology. 
The whale, as I am informed by Mr. J. E. Gully, was stranded on the 
sands at the entrance of the Waimea River, Nelson. It was boiled down, 
and the skeleton and baleen passed into the possession of Captain Barry, 
who unfortunately was not sufficiently aware of the value of a complete 
whale’s skeleton to give the proper amount of care to the preservation of 
the smaller bones. The eight (?) posterior caudal vertebre were thrown 
away with the “ flukes ;” the anterior epiphysis of the fifth cervical vertebra 
is missing; many of the phalanges and some of the carpals are lost; and 
no trace of either pelvie bone reached Dunedin.* 
The rest of the skeleton is quite perfect and in excellent condition. The 
small fifteenth rib is present on both sides, as well as the lacrymal and the 
malar. The hyoidean apparatus is complete, and the number of chevron 
bones (18) agrees with Van Beneden and Gervais’s figure of B. musculus, 
although from the description of that species in the ‘‘Ostéographie des 
Cétacés " it seems probable that these were followed by three others in the. 
cartilaginous condition. 
The skeleton is in the stage defined by Flower} as ** young,” that is, all 
the epiphyses both of the vertebra and of the arm bones are separate. The 
bones of the skull also shrunk away from one another a good dealin the 
course of drying, so that it was found impossible to bring them into con- 
tact. "This is especially the case with the maxillz and the orbital processes of 
the frontals, between which there is a gap of about two inches. The 
premaxille and maxille were both separated during the preparation of the 
skull, as well as the lacrymals and jugals. 
The entire length of the skeleton, as mounted, is 59 feet 6 inches, 
measured in a straight line. This includes eight restored vertebra at the 
end of the caudal region, as well as the pads of felt representing inter- 
vertebral ligaments: the latter vary from $ to % inch in thickness in 
different parts of the vertebral column. 
This size appears to be somewhat remarkable for so young a specimen. 
Flower states that whales grow to more than half the size of the adult while 
still in the “ young” stage, but it is certainly interesting to find a length of 
over 54 feet attained in the young stage of a species which appears never to 
exceed 80 feet, and in which the fully adult condition of the skeleton may 
be reached in specimens of 70 and even 60 feet long. 
The following measurements are taken to correspond pretty nearly with 
those given by Flower] and by Murie,| and will help to show the close 
* I am much indebted to Mr, J. E. Gully for having instituted a search for the missing 
bones, but unluckily his efforts met with no success. 
+ “Notes on the Skeletons of Whales in the Principal Museums of Holland and 
1 P.Z.8., 1864, p. 399, ete. 
|| “On the Anatomy of a Fin-whale eaptured near Gravesend.” Proe. Zool. See., 
T865, p. 206, . 
