4 EDWARD A. WILSON. 
have had. We saw a very large number of these whales, sometimes alone, sometimes 
in pairs, and sometimes in much greater numbers. 
On March 2nd and 4th, 1904, when off Cape North and the Balleny Islands, we 
saw so many together that we could generally count half-a-dozen spouts at once. 
Many were then in a sportive mood and, in rolling over, showed some yellowish white 
on the under parts. Some, too, were bellowing, and the noise of the blow was 
constant, far and near. 
There is much variety in the shape of the dorsal “fin” and in the extent to which 
the back is humped behind it; in Fig. 1 are given a number of outlines which were 
taken on the spot. The “ fin” is always situated far back upon the posterior third of 
the animal’s length. Some, too, have exerescences on the dorsal fin which probably 
consisted of barnacles, but this we did not observe in the icy seas, where all that we 
saw were free from anything of the kind. 
We saw a pair of these whales in Table Bay on our voyage out; again a pair off 
the coast of New Zealand, but nowhere did we see them in numbers till we reached 
the ice. In Ross Sea they were abundant. If, as Sir James Hector suggested, there are 
really four species of Rorqual in the Southern Hemisphere, they are probably not easily 
to be distinguished at a distance. I must refer all that we saw to the one species only, 
though it is possible that they represented also the Southern form of Rorqual which 
has been given specific distinction under the title B. australis, the “ Sulphur-Bottom ” 
of Antarctic whalers. 
NEOBALANA MARGINATA. 
The Australian Whale. 
Balena marginata, Gray, Zool. Ereb. and Terr., (1846), p. 48. 
Neobalena marginata, id., Suppl. Cat. 8. and W. (1871), p. 40; Flower, op. ci., p. 4; Hutton and 
Drummond, Animals of New Zealand (1904), p. 44. 
This whale, unless our identification is at fault, is also a common form in the 
Ross Sea, and is met with constantly wherever there is loose pack ice. It is a 
black or dark grey whale of from 20 to 30 fect in length, with a very rounded back, 
and a small hook-like dorsal fin which slopes well backwards. It appeared at the 
surface almost as it spouted, and as the head went under, the round back rolled up, 
showing its little dorsal fin, before it disappeared again. (See fig. 2.) As a rule this 
whale was solitary ; occasionally two or three, but never more, were seen together. It 
was always moving along in an orderly fashion, and never on any occasion disported 
itself, nor did it ever show more than the back and fin, as I have mentioned. 
AN UNDESCRIBED WHALE. 
(See Whales, Plate IL.) 
Next must be mentioned a whale which Sir James Ross and McCormick 
have both mentioned as one “ of large size, having an extremely long erect back fin,” a 
