Hecror.—New Zealand Cetaceans. : 155 
characters. As Cetaceans are not unfrequently cast up on the coast of New 
Zealand, I may state, for the guidance of collectors, that the bones which it is 
most important to preserve are the skull and ear bones, vertebre of the neck, 
shoulder blade, first two or three ribs, and a few of the segments selected from 
different parts of the vertebral column, but in the smaller species the whole 
skeleton should be collected if possible. 
NEOBALAINA MARGINATA. 
Western Australian Whale. 
Balena marginata, Gray, “Cat. Seals and Whales,” p. 90; Hector, Trans. 
NA Inst... IL, 26, PL 2b. Caperea antipodarum, Gray (in part) 
le. 101. Neobaleena, Gray, “ Ann. and Mag. N.H.,” 1870, 154; Trans. 
N.Z. Inst., IIL., 123. 
Ear Bone, Pl. VI., figs. la. and b. 
This whale has been described only from some plates of baleen in the 
British Museum, and from the skull and baleen of a small individual, 16 feet 
long, that was cast ashore on the island of Kawau, and is considered by 
Dr. Gray to represent in the Southern Seas the great Right Whale of the 
Arctic Ocean. 
The baleen or whalebone is the most flexible, elastic, and toughest of any 
yet discovered, but is of very small size. It is on account of this character, 
taken along with the proportional dimensions of the baleen, that Dr. Gray 
places this whale among the true Balenide, but the external characters of the 
animal have not yet been observed. 
The young skull, which is 4 feet 9 inches long, is depressed, and may be 
recognized from other baleen whales by the great length of the brain cavity, 
which very nearly equals the beak, and by the feeble articulation of the lower 
jaw. The baleen is slender, white, with a black outer margin, frayed on the 
inner edge to a fringe of single fine hairs, and having a highly enamelled 
surface. 
The ear bones (Pl. VI., figs. la. and b.) are oblong, rough, the outer 
margin thick and rounded, the lower edge truncate, and the back convex. 
The aperture is contracted above but wide below, the wide portion being less 
than half the length of the bone. It is evidently on the ear bone of this 
species that Dr. Gray has founded his Caperea antipodarum, or New Zealand 
Right Whale, a species which must therefore be reserved until supported by 
further observation. 
