90 



BAL^KID^. 



3. Balsena marginata. The Western Australian WTwde. 



The baleen very long, slender (nearly eight times as long as wide 

 at the base), pure white, thin, with a rather broad black edge on the 

 outer or straight side. 



Balsena marginata, Gray, Zool. JE. 8r T. 48. 1. 1. f. 1 (baleen) ; Cat. 

 Cetac. B. M. 1850, 14; P. Z. S. 1864, 200. 



Inhab. "Western Australia. 



a, b, 0. Three plates of baleen. Length 20 inches ; width at the 

 base 2 inches 6 lines. Western Australia. Presented by 

 J. "Warwick, Esq. — The specimens figured in the ' Voyage of 

 the Erebus and Terror,' tab. 1. fig. 1. 



This species is only known from three laminae of baleen. It is much 

 smaller and broader, compared with its width at the base, than, and 

 is difierently coloured from, the baleen of any of the other species. 



This is undoubtedly a very distinct species. The baleen is of 

 nearly the same structure as that of the Greenland "Whale ; but we 

 do ij.ot know what may be the form of the first ribs, or of the bones 

 of the other parts of the skeleton. 



4. ? Balsena gibbosa. The Scrag "Whale. 



" A Scrag Whale. Is near akin to the Fin-back, but instead of a 

 fin upon its back, the ridge of the after-part of its back is scragged 

 with half-a-dozen knobs or knuckles. He is nearest the Eight "Whale 

 {B. Mysticetus) in figure and quantity of oil. His bone (whalebone) 

 is white, but won't split." — Dudley. 



" A Scrag "Whale," Dudley, Phil. Trans, xxxiii. 259 ; and Whalers. 

 Balsena gibbosa, M-xl. Syst. 610 (from Dudley) ; Omelin, S. N. i. 225 ; 



JBonnat. C4t. 5 ; Lac4p. Cet. 113 ; Virey, Nom. Diet. S. N. iii. 185 ; 



Oerard, Diet. Sci. Nat. iii. 440; Desm. Mamm. 528; Fischer, Syn. 



52S; Gray, Cat. Cetac. £.M. 1850,18. 

 Balsena gibbis vel nodis sex, B. macra, Klein, MS8. Pise. ii. 15. 

 Balsena bipennis sex in dorso gibbis, £rissoh, 22. Anim. 351. 

 Knotenfish oder Knobbelfish,Ji»Mfers./«Z. 225 ; Crantz, Grikdand, 146. 

 Bunched Mysticete, Shaw, Zool. ii. 495. 



Inhab. Atlantic Ocean. 



Dudley's account is copied by Anderson, Crantz, and all succeeding 

 authors. 



Cuvier thought the Scrag "Whale (B. gibbosa) was only a Rorqual 

 (Oss. Fobs. v. 267) which had been mutUated ; but I suspect, from 

 Dudley's account of the form, that it must be a Balcena, probably 

 well Imown formerly. Indeed Beale (Hist. Sperm "Whale) speaks of 

 it a* recognized by the whalers now. 



" Scrags" is the whalers' name for yoimg specimens of the Eight 

 "Whale. (See Dieffenbach, New Zealand, i. 45.) 



Bonnaterre and all succeeding authors have referred to this genus 

 the Humpbaclced Whale of Dudley, not understanding his descrip- 

 tion of the belly being " reeved," that is, plaited ; they call it Balcena 

 nodosa. 



