7124 Cetacea. 



Probably the young of Balgenoptera indica, rather than another and 

 smaller species. A fine skull of the same, with rami of the lower jaw 

 measurir)g 10 feet, was obtained by the late Professor H. Walker from 

 a friend in Arakan, and is now in the museum of the Calcutta Medical 

 College. It is most probably from the Bay of Bengal. In the Society's 

 30-foot specimen the bases of the lower jaw are mutilated, only the 

 shafts remaining ; but in the Medical College skull the coronoid, &c., 

 of the lower jaw accord with those of our 21-foot jaw; 



There are other remains of Balaenidae in our museum, the origin of 

 which I have been unable to trace, at least when and by whom pre- 

 sented ; but they were in the collection prior to my taking charge of 

 it in 1841. Portions of one skeleton appear to be referable to Balaena 

 australis of Desmoulins,le Grand Balein du Cap of Cuvier, or ordinary 

 southern right whale. These consist of three vertebrae, a pair of humeri 

 and a pair of scapulae. One humerus and one scapula have now been 

 injured by long exposure out of doors ; but the others are in tolerably 

 good preservation, and well agree with Cuvier's figures in the ' Ossemens 

 Fossiles ;' the acromion being present only in the injured scapula. 

 The scapula measures 41 inches long by 47^ inches in the extreme 

 breadth. The humerus 22 inches long by 15 maximum and Q^ inches 

 minimum breadth. Of the vertebrae, one is worked into a fancy chair, 

 and is an uninjured first dorsal ; body 8j by lOf inches broad^ 

 measured posteriorly ; the lateral processes 12 inches long. Another 

 is probably the third dorsal ; and the remaining one is probably the 

 5th dorsal, 13^ by 14 inches posteriorly, and 12 inches in antero-pos- 

 terior diameter; the spinal apophyses of both are broken away above 

 their alae. It will be understood that I merely adjudge these to be 

 portions of the same skeleton. 



Of two pairs of the internal ear of " the whale," one pair is likely to 

 belong to the last-noticed individual, the other pair perhaps to the 

 30-foot Balaenoptera, which, however, is less probable, judging from 

 their great size. It is not likely that they appertain to the same 

 species, as one pair is nearly equal in size, while in the other the left 

 is much larger than the right. From this great inequality I am inclined 

 to suspect that the latter pair belong to a cachelot or sperm whale. 

 A large left internal ear, without a right to match it, is probably that 

 noticed in the ' Journal of the Asiatic Society,' vol. v. p. 374, as having 

 been presented by the late James Prinsep ; and there is even another 

 left cochlea only. On present data I cannot venture on attempting to 

 identify the precise species or even genera to which these specimens 

 belong. 



