BAL^NOPTERA. 551 



Genus Bal^noptera, Lacep. 

 BaI;^noptera edeni, Andr., Plate XLIV. 



The first fragments of the Whale called Balcemptera indicahj Blyth were 

 noticed in 1852 ^ by their describer as follows :— " Prom Capt. T. P. Sparkes, 

 Rann-i. The left radius, two lumbar and one sacral vertebrse of an enormous 

 Whale {Balcenoptera f) and two lumbar vertebrae and the second ( ? ) rio-ht rib of a 

 smaller Whale. These, Capt. Sparkes, Assist. Commissioner, Ramri, supposed to 

 have belonged to one individual, respecting which he contributes the following in- 

 formation : ' The Whale was thrown up dead and in a horrid state of decomposition 

 on Juggoo or Amherst Island during last rains (1851). I was unable to see it myself, 

 but was told that the carcase measured 84 feet in length. The vertebree and rib 

 were all that I could recover on visiting the island just before I came up to Calcutta, 

 with the exception of the two jaw bones, each about 14 feet long, which the steamer 

 was unable to bring up last trip, but which I will send you on her return this time 

 from Arakan. This is the only instance I have heard of a Whale being stranded 

 on the coast of Arakan.' Nevertheless, the bones sent are certainly those of two 

 individuals, and probably species, differing materially in size ; and we have a note of 

 a Whale of the largest size having been stranded on the Chittagong coast, as recorded 

 in the ' Priend of India ' newspaper for September 15, 1842, and copied into most of 

 the contemporary Indian journals, but no description was taken of it that would 

 determine the genus. " 



When Blyth had received the jaws mentioned by Capt. Sparkes, he wrote in 

 1853 :^ " The two rami of the lower jaw of the Whale or Rorqual ( Bal(snopfera), 

 which was stranded last year upon Juggoo or Amherst Island (south of Ramri Island) 

 as noticed in Vol. XXI, p. 359 ; but they prove to be larger by one-half than Capt. 

 Sparkes had supposed, measuring 21 feet in length, minus an inch or two. This mag- 

 nificent specimen is now fixed up in the Museum, as experience has shown that such 

 bones cannot in this country be permanently exposed to the weather with impunity. 

 The length of the left radius of this Rorqual measures 37 inches ; the body of a sacral 

 vertebra is 15 inches deep, by 16 inches broad, and nearly 14 inches in extreme length. 

 A lumbar vertebra is somewhat smaller, with spinal apophyses measuring 27 inches : 

 expanse of lateral apophyses from tip to tip 40 inches, and extreme height of the 

 dorsal apophyses from the ground 37 or 38 inches. " The proportional length of 

 the radius, Blyth considered, indicated the animal to have been a Balcenoptera or 

 Rorqual, while the remarkable slenderness of the lower jaw sufiiced, he thought, to 

 prove it a distinct species from any hitherto described Rorqual. He also regarded 

 the medium length of the radius as marking it out as a very different species from 

 the typical Megaptera or Hunchback Whale, and that it must indeed have been a 

 Balcenoptera. Returning to the lower jaw, he again notices that it is " remarkably 



' Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxi, p. 358. 

 ' Jour. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxii, p. 414. 



