RUDOLPHl'S RORQUAL. 407 



f^li^^"^ ' -^-^ LMNOP TERID.€. 



(MYSTACOCKTI.) 



RUDOLPHl'S RORQUAL. 

 Balcenoptera laticeps (J. E. Gray). 



Specific Character. — Black above, white below ; ufjper surface of flipper 

 black. Baleen black ? Rostrum of skull very broad ; vertebne about 58 ; 

 ribs 15 paii-s, the first usually (or always?) double-headed. Length of adult 

 30 to 40 feet. 



Baliena rostrata, Rodolphi (nee Linn.) Berlin Abhandl., 27 (1820). 



Balcenoptera laticeps, J. E. Geat, Zool. Erebus & Terror, I., 20 (1844). 



Silihaldlus hticeps, „ P. Z. S., 1864, 223. 



? Balienopitera loij/if, Yakrell, P. Z. S., 1840, 11. 



? ,, tenv.irostris, SwEETist), Mag. Nat. Hist. 1840, iv. 342. 



RuDOLPHi's Rorqual is a small species, not much 

 larger than the Lesser Rorqual, with which it was for- 

 merly confounded. Very little is yet known of its history 

 and geographical distribution. 



In 1820 Rudolphi described a specimen taken in 

 Holstein under the name of Balana rostrata; its skeleton 

 is still preserved in the Berlin Museum. This was the 

 " Rorqual du Nord" of Cuvier [Oss. Foss., V., p. 50)4), 

 to which Fischer gave the name of Balcsna borealis, in- 

 cluding the Ostend Whale in his description. But the 

 distinction of Rudolphi's specimen was first clearly 

 pointed out by Dr. Gray, in the " Zoology of the 

 Erebus and Terror " in 1846, and other skeletons have 

 since been found to belong to the same species. 



