TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



NEW ZEALAND INSTITUTE 



1884 



ZOOLOGY. 



Aet. I. — Notes on the Skeleton and Baleen of a Fin-whale (Balsenoptera 

 musculus ?) recently acquired by the Otago University Museum. By T. 

 Jeffery Pabker, B.Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology iu the University 

 of Otago. 



{Read before the Otago Institute, lith October, 1884.] 

 Plate VI. 

 Bather more than a year ago, a large whale's skeleton was exhibited in 

 many parts of the colony by Captain Jackson Barry, who finally brought it 

 to Dunedin. On visiting the shed where the bones were roughly set up, 

 I found the animal to be a Balamoptera, a genus hitherto not represented in 

 this Museum ; and, as the number of bones missing was comparatively 

 small, and the baleen was perfect, I entered into negotiations with Mr. 

 Barry, with the ultimate result of securing the specimen as soon as it 

 had ceased to " draw " as a show. 



In one of his valuable contributions to our knowledge of the Cetacea,* 

 Professor Flower remarks : " We have at present so little definite informa- 

 tion upon the specific characters and geographical distribution of the Cetacea, 

 that it is desirable that no opportunity should be lost of putting on record 

 any facts which may contribute to the better knowledge of the natural history 

 of even the most common species of this interesting group of Mammalia." 

 I have, therefore, thought it advisable to communicate to the Institute a 

 few notes on the specimen in question, with a view of furnishing a series of 

 measurements for comparison with those already on record, and of calling 

 attention to one or two points in which the specimen differs from hitherto 

 described examples. It also seems desirable that an accurate account of the 

 skeleton as it reached the Museum should be placed on record, so that 

 any one interested in the matter may have no difficulty in finding out at 

 once how far the specimen, as mounted, is "restored." 



* " On a Lesser Fin-whale recently stranded on the Norfolk Coast*" Proc. Zool. 

 Soc, 1864, p. 252. 



