156 Transactions. — Zoology. 



EUBAL^NA AUSTRALIS. 

 The Black Whale— Tohora. 



E. australis, Gray, I.e. 91. Balcena {Cajperea) a/ntipoda/rum, Gray, (in part) I.e. 



p. 101 ; Dieffenbach's N.Z., II., Tab. 1. 



Ear hone, PL YI., f. 2. 



These two speeies are for tlie present placed together because whalers 

 do not recognize two kinds of Black Whale, and the only portion of the 

 second species which is described by Dr. Gray is an ear bone sent to the British 

 Mnsenm from Otago by Mr. Stuart, but which, as already stated, I find to 

 agree with that of his Neohalcena niarginata. The skeleton of Gaperea antipo- 

 darum in the Paris Museum (Gray, I.e. 371), taken on the coast of New 

 Zealand, is however considered by Professor Flower to differ from that of 

 B. australis in having square nasal bones and a simple (not forked) first rib. 



The Black Whale is the largest and best known of all the whales on the 

 New Zealand coast, reaching a length of 60 feet. Its huge bones may be seen 

 strewn on the beach in great profusion at any of the whaling stations, but 

 generally in a bad state of preservation. The skull is triangular, convex, with 

 the beak bent down rather suddenly, and the posterior part depressed, the 

 brain cavity being only one-third the length of the beak. The vertebrae of the 

 neck are united into a compact mass, the spinous processes forming a solid 

 crest. The ear bone (PI. YL, fig. 2) is rhombic, with a large oblong aperture. 

 The baleen is thick, rather brittle, with thin enamel, and margined with a 

 thick fringe. The blades are from 2 to 9 feet in length. 



The females visit the bays and inlets round the coast to calve during the 

 winter months from May to August, where they are captured by the shore 

 whalers. The males are seldom caught, as they rarely approach the land and 

 are more shy and wild than the females. From October to May the Black 

 Whales are only captured by cruisers on the whaling ground which extends 

 from the Chatham Islands to Norfolk Island. 



Several vertebrae, and two imperfect tympanic bones of this whale are in 

 the Museum."^ 



MBQAPTERA NOV^ ZEALANDI^. 



Ne'w Zealand Humpback. 

 M. novce-zealaoidice, Gray, I.e. 128. 



Ear hone, PI. YI., figs. 3a. and b. 

 This species is also founded by Dr. Gray on the ear bone alone, and has 

 not been clearly identified. A whale that was captured in Wellington 



* A very perfect tympanic and periotic bone has been obtained in Preservation Inlet, 

 on the West Coast of Otago, since the above was written, and agrees with the figure of 

 the Ear Bones of the adult Balcena azts^rafe given in Huxley's " Comp. Anatomy," p. 397. 



