KTJNGL. S. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 40. N:0 5. 25 



balclii auct.) and the southern Rorqual or Finback called by Burmeister B. pata- 

 chonica. The specific name antarctica should have had priority before intermedia 

 if Gray had not nsed this name previously in the »Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. 

 Erebus and Terror». Vol. I p. 51 (said to have been printed 1846). In this work 

 the name Balcenoptera antarctica is proposed for a whale from New Zealand the 

 baleen of which was »all yellowish white», thus certainly not a Blue whale. 



The first stranded specimen of Balcenoptera intermedia which Burmeister ex- 

 amined 1866 in Buenos Aires, where it had been brought, measured 58 feet in length. 

 It was a young female and its colour was described as being »dark slate grey, on 

 the back almost shading into black». From the nape to the dorsal fin irregular 

 paler spöts of the same colour as the under parts were seen. Only the inner surface 

 of the pectoral fin and its outer margin were white, although the same colour shaded 

 över the axilla to some extent. The baleen was black. 



The second specimen of which Burmeister also obtained the skeleton was a 

 somewhat larger male measuring 60 feet (18, so m.) in length. The colour of this 

 specimen was »dark slate grey» all över and also somewhat spotted on the back. 1 

 Below the tail region it was somewhat paler, and especially the lower surface of the 

 flukes were paler thari the colour above. The throat-region again was darker. The 

 colour of the pectoral fins was such as in the first mentioned specimen. Burmei- 

 ster (17) gives also a detailed description of the skeleton of B. intermedia and com- 

 pares it with the osseous system of other species. 



If only exteriör characteristics are taken into consideration, Balcenoptera inter- 

 media Burmeister may be diagnosed as a Rorqual (Balcenoptera) of the southern 

 seas, rather similar to the northern Blue whale (B. musculus Lin".), entirely slate 

 coloured, somewhat paler or darker in some parts, but only white on the inner sur- 

 face and outer margin of the pectoral fin, this colour, however, more or less shad- 

 ing över into the axilla; baleen black and bristles black. 



The whale described by Hector (19) under the name Physalus australis cannot 

 be regarded, as has been done by Trouessart 2 , as identical with Burmeister's B. 

 antarctica resp. intermedia when the latter is diagnosed as above from Burmeistér's 

 own descriptions. The baleen of Hector's Physalus australis is namely said to have 

 been »light slate grey with vertical bands of black, some blades nearly white, yellow- 

 ish white», and its bristles white. Such a. baleen is characteristic of Rorquals of the 

 group to which Balcenoptera physalus (Lin.) (musculus auct.) and B. patachonica Bur- 

 meister belong. Another whale, however, also stranded at New Zealand, belongs 

 evidently to the Blue whale group. Its baleen is described by Hutton 3 as being 

 black, and the length of the animal shall have been 109 feet. This measurement, 

 even if it might be exaggerated, certainly indicates a Balcenoptera of this group. 



1 It may be suggested that these spöts are not quite primary but resnlts of the wearing of the skin 

 of the dead whale against the bottom and shore before it was described. 

 ä Cat. Mam. T. II p. 1080 Berlin 1898—99. 

 3 In the same volnme as Hectok's Phyf.alus australis (19). 



K. Sv. Vet. Akad. Handl. Band 40. N:o 5. 4 



