ANTARCTIC CETACEA. 207 
As mentioned above, Mr. Bull records numbers of rorquals from 
the Antarctic, but there is practically no definite information as to 
the species to which these belong. It is true that the name Balw- 
noptera (or Physalus) australis has been applied to one of the larger 
forms from the Southern Hemisphere, but no characters have been 
given by means of which it can certainly be distinguished froin the 
northern species. A smaller form from New Zealand has been named 
B. hutton by Gray, but its right tu distinction from the northern pike- 
whale (B. rostrata) has yet to be demonstrated. The British Museum 
possesses the tympanic bones of a large rorqual from Magellan Strait, 
and a second from Cook Strait, New Zealand. 
Humpback whales (J/cegaptera) are known to range into the Ant- 
arctic, and specimens from New Zealand have been described by 
Gray as If. nove-zelandic, while the Cape form has received another 
name from the same writer. Sir W. H. Flower considered, however, 
that neither of these are separable from the northern J. béops. This 
view is provisionally followed by Dr. Morenot when recording the 
occurrence of the genus in Argentine waters. How far south the 
humpback ranges is at present unknown, and accurate descriptions 
of the coloration of any examples seen would be valuable. 
The sperm-whales of the South seas were regarded by Gray as dis- 
tinct from the typical Physeter macrocephalus, and have received the 
names of P. polycyphus and Catodon australis, but there is no reason 
to believe in the existence of more than one southern form, or that 
this is really different from the northern animal. Information with 
regard to the southern limits of the range of the sperm-whale would 
be most valuable; also, whether there are any large oid males now 
living which show the abrupt truncation of the muzzle exhibited in 
the illustrations to Beale’s well-known ‘Whaling Voyage, and in 
other old pictures. Photographs of this whale when “ breaching” 
would be of especial interest. 
The lesser, or short-headed, sperm whale (Cogia breviceps), first 
described by Gray in the ‘Zoology of the Hrebus and Terror, seems 
to be, in the main, a southern form, occurring in Australian and 
South African waters, although it, or a closely allied species, has 
also been taken at Madras. Very little is known as to the external 
characters of this species, and coloured sketches, photographs and 
measurements, would be most valuable. It is a light-coloured ceta- 
cean, growing to a length of about twenty feet, with no back fin, and | 
a full series of teeth in the lower jaw but none in the upper. Whether 
it ranges into the Antarctic is not known. 
t Op. cit. 
