10 Transactions. —Z oology. 
6. The Fore-limb.—The humerus is but slightly compressed, and cannot 
be said to have a sharp lower (pre-axial) edge as described by Van Beneden 
and Gervais, who also state that the ulna and radius are twice the length 
of the humerus. In the present specimen the length of the humerus is to 
that of the fore-arm as 8 : 5 (strictly as 17: 29). The total length of the 
fore-limb, as mounted, from the head of the humerus to the tip of the 
second digit, is 6 feet 2 inches. 
The Baleen (fig. 5). 
The baleen was cut into about six pieces on each side, but the separate 
portions appear to be as nearly perfect as possible. The total number of 
blades on each side—about 850—corresponds exactly to the number found 
by Flower* in an entire specimen of Balenoptera musculus obtained near 
Havre. In the middle of the series I find 39 plates to a foot ; Flower gives 
this number as 24. The length of the anterior blades is about 6 inches: 
the longest are 23 inches measured along the outer edge, 80 inches along 
the inner edge, and 102 inches along the base or dorsal edge. In Flower's 
Havre specimen the anterior blades were 7, the longest 21 inches in length, 
the total length of the specimen, in the flesh, being 61 feet. 
The anterior blades are yellowish white, the rest slate-coloured, with 
irregular vertical stripes of pale horn-colour, especially numerous towards 
the inner edge. The whole of the fibres forming the inner surface of the 
baleen are nearly white ; they attain a length of 11 inches in the middle of 
the series. There is a distinct inner fringe formed by the dorsalmost fibres, 
which are about six inches in length: it seems just possible that this inner 
fringe may be due to a uniform longitudinal splitting of the blades during 
drying. There is no trace of the curled fibres described by Flower in the 
Havre speciment as occurring on the outer side of the hindmost plates. 
t will be seen that the agreement with Balenoptera musculus is here 
very close, except in the number of blades to a foot in the middle of the 
series. I am disposed to wonder whether the number given by Flower (24) 
is not a misprint, since if the distance between the blades through the 
whole series were anything like uniform—as it is in my specimen—the 
total antero-posterior extent of the baleen would be nearly 15 feet, whereas 
the total distance from the end of the muzzle to the middle of the eye i8 
given as 12 feet. If the number 24 is correct, the blades in the Havre 
specimen must have been much crowded at either the anterior or posterior 
end of the series, or both. 
*“ Notes on four specimens of the common Fin-whale,” Proc, Zool. Soc., 1869, p. 604. 
t P.Z.S., 1869, p. 604, 
