Hector. — 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, vertebrae 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. 



NBOBAL^NA MARGINATA. 



"Western Australian Whale. 



Balmna marginata, Gray, " Oat. Seals and Whales," p. 90 ; Hector, Trans. 

 K.Z. Inst., II., 26, PI. 2b. Caperea antipodarum, Gray (in part) 



I.e. 101. Neohaloina, Gray, "Ann. and Mag. JST.H,," 1870, 154; Tra,ns. 

 N.Z. Inst., III., 123. 



Ear Bone, PI. 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 a.ccount of this character, 

 taken along with the proportional dimensions of the baleen, that Dr. Gray 

 places this whale among the true Balaenidse, 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 (PI. YI., 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. 



