123 



Art. XVII. — Notes on the Skull o/'Balsena marginata, described in " Transac- 

 tions of the New Zealand Institute^'' Vol. ii., p. 26., as the Type of a New 

 Genus, Neobalsena. By Dr. J. E. Gray, F.E.S., etc. 



[Reprinted from "Annals and Magazine of Natural History," 1870, p. 154.] 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, October 22, 1870.] 



In the essay on Whales published in the " Voyage of the Erebus and Terror " 

 I established a species of time Whalebone- Whale on three examples of whale- 

 bone which I had received from Western Australia, believing it to belong to 

 the same genus as the Greenland Whale [Baloina), as the whalebone was of 

 long slender shape, and of a very fine texture, with a large quantity of enamel, 

 which is a peculiarity of the baleen of that genus. Sir George Grey, the late 

 Governor of Kew Zealand, has obtained the skull of Balcena marginata from 

 the Island of Kawau, New Zealand, and has presented it to the Museum at 

 Wellington. Dr. EEector has given figures exhibiting four views of this skull 

 in the Transactions and Proceedings of the Neio Zealand Institute for 1869, 

 Vol. ii., which was issued in April, 1870. Tliese figures show that the Avhale, 

 which has long, slendei", and fine-textured whalebone or baleen like that of the 

 Greenland Eight Whale, forms a very difierent genus from the restricted genus 

 Balcena. The brain-cavity forms a much larger part of the skull ; the beak is 

 much shorter and broader at the base, gradiially tapering to a point in front ; 

 and the lower jaw bones are thin, compressed, and high, with the upper edge 

 dilated and inflexed the greater part of their length, and the lower edge 

 similarly dilated in the front part or chin. 



I propose for this animal the name Neohcdcena ; and it may be thus 

 characterized : — 



Neobal^na. 



SkuU rather depressed j brain-cavity nearly as long as the beak, depressed, 

 much expanded on the sides, with a very deep notch on the middle of each side 

 over the condyles of the lower jaw, and with a subtriangular crown-plate. 

 The nose as broad as the expanded brain-cavity at the base, regulax'ly atteniiated 

 to a fine point in front, and slightly arched downwards. Lower jaw laminar, 

 compressed, high ; the upper edge thin, and infiexed the greater part of its 

 leng-th, erect in front ; the lower edge inflexed in front, the rest of the edge 

 being simple. The baleen elongate, slender, several times as long as broad, 

 with a fringe of a single series of fiaae fibres ; enamelled surface smooth and 

 polished, thick. 



