BAL^NOPTEEIDJ!. 115 



genus or species any bone tiat might be shown to him belongs, even 

 if it were only a phalange or a rib. 



The ear-bones of each genus, as far as I have been able to examine, 

 seem to afford very good characters ; but, unfortunately, they are 

 often sent to the Museum separate from the skull and other bones 

 of the animal to which they belong. 



Skeletons of whales are shown in museums and gardens, without 

 any large and expensive building; indeed slight special buUdings 

 are best, permitting more ventilation. In Paris, the whale's skeleton 

 is exhibited under a glass roof in the quadrangle of the Museum ; 

 at Antwerp it is shown in a building formed of galvanized iron ; and 

 they are shown in a similar manner at Edinburgh, the Isle of Wight, 

 and other localities. 



I. Dorsal Jm low, broad. Pectoral fin very long, with 4 very longfrngers 

 of many phalanges. Vertebrce 55 or 60. Cervical vertebrae often an- 

 ehylosed. Lateral process of the axis tardily ossified. Neural canal 

 large, high, triangular, as high as broad. MibsU or 15. Coronoid pro- 

 cess of lower Jaw rudimentary. Frontal bone broad, narrowed at the 

 orbital end. Orbit moderate. Megapterina, or Hunchbacked Whales. 



Balsenopterus, Oeoffr. Leqons, Mamm. 67, 1835. 



Megaptera, Gray, Zool. JSreb. &■ Terror, 16 ; Cat. Cetac. J. Jf. 23, 1850 ; 



P. Z. S. 1864, 203. 

 Megapteron, Ch-ay, Zool. JEreb. 8f Terror, 51. 

 Mysticetus, sp., Wagler, N. S. Amph. 33, 1840. 

 Balaenoptera, § Boops, Brandt, Voy. Alt. Orient. 4to, 1845. 

 ? Cyphonotus, Mqfin. Anal. Nat. 61, 1815 (no character nor type). 

 Kyphobalsena, Mschricht, Nord. Waltthiere, xv. 1845, fol. 

 Balsenoptera leucopteron. Lesson, in the Nouv. Tab. Beg. Anim. 202, 



gives this name to " La Humpback des peeheurs " of the " Hautes 



latitudes S." 

 Rorqual du Cap, Cuv. 

 Megapterina, Gray, P. Z. 8. 1864, 205. 

 Megapterinse, Flower, P. Z. S. 1864, 391. 



Bunch Whale, Dudley, Phil. Trans, xxxiii. 1725, no. 387, p. 258. 

 Humpback Whale, Whalers, Beale, Hist. Sperm W. 12 ; Gray, P. Z. S. 



1864, 350. 

 Baleena nodosa, Bonnat. Cet. 5. 

 Balaenoptera (pars), Lacep. 



The Bunch Whales are easily known from the Finners (Balceno- 

 ptera) in being shorter and more robust, the skull nearly one-fourth of 

 the entire length, the head wider between the eyes, the mouth larger, 

 the lip warty, and the nose large and rounded ; the plaits of the 

 belly and throat are broad ; the dorsal is more forward ; the pectoral 

 Isffger and narrow, about one-fifth of the length of the body ; and the 

 tail is wider, and the lobes generaEy more pointed. 



The skuU of this genus is intermediate in form between that of 

 Balcena and Balamoptera. 



This kind of whale was noticed by Dudley (Phil. Trans, xxxiii. 258). 

 He says, " The Bunch or Humphaelced Whale has a bunch standing 

 in the place where the fin does in the Fin-back ; this bunch is as 

 big as a man's head, and a foot high, shaped like a plug pointing 



I 2 



