334 Transactions. — Zoology. 



in the same museum is tlie type specimen of Eubalcena australis, from tlie 

 Cape of Good Hope, ^\hicli is 49 feet in length, the skull measuring 14^ 

 feet. In both skeletons the number of dorsal and lumbar vertebra is the 

 same, but in the former only nine caudal vertebrae have chevron bones and 

 twelve are without, while in Balcena australis thirteen have chevron bones and 

 there are twelve without, thus having four more caudal segments than in 

 the New Zealand specimen ; but as the few other divergent characters of the 

 two skeletons are within the limits of individual variation, it is probable 

 that the above difference is due to the imperfection of the shorter skeleton, 

 some of the chevron bones and terminal ossicles having been lost. 



The other differences are stated by Van Beneden and Gervais to be 

 as follows : — * 



The mandible has a smaller coronoid process but has a better developed 

 articular surface in B. australis, and the superior maxillary bone is stronger, 

 and the temporal bone notably more massive. In B. antipodarum the beak 

 is a little more curved. There is also a slight difference in the size of 

 the arm bones, and the acromion process of the scapula, present in B. 

 australis, is represented only by a tubercle or ridge in the other skeleton. 



This latter character cannot, however, be considered as impor- 

 tant, for in the same museum is the skeleton of another whale (Megaptera 

 lalandii) in which the scapulae of the opposite sides differ in this respect. 

 After examining the skeletons referred to, and being famihar with the 

 variations presented among the bones of the same s^^ecies scattered about 

 the whaling stations on the New Zealand coast, I do not attach much 

 importance to these distinctions, but at the same time it must be noted that 

 in the skeleton of a black whale obtained on the coast of Canterbury by Dr. 

 von Haast, and now mounted in the British Museum as the type of Macleayius 

 australiensis, Gray, the total number of vertebrae is also 54. The strong 

 curvature which has been given to the vertebral column in mounting this 

 fine skeleton, gives it, at first sight, a very different aspect from the Paris 

 specimens, but closer examination proves it to agree closely in all charac- 

 ters but the number of terminal caudal ossicles, with Eubalcena australis. 



In the Dunedin Museum, the skeleton of a young black whale obtained 

 on the Otago coast, has been mounted by Professor Hutton, and he informs 

 me that in this specimen also the number of vertebral segments is 54. 



The smaller number of vertebra thus appears constant in the only 

 three complete skeletons of the New Zealand Euhalcsn a -which, are available ; 

 whereas in the skeleton of the Cape Eubalcena, of which there are two in 

 Paris, old and young, one young at Leyden, and one, also young, in the 



* Loc. clt., p. 53. 



