1. MEGAPTEEA. 117 



The highest south latitude in which we noticed the species (genus) 

 was 49° ; the highest north latitude 40°, on the western side of the 

 continent of America. Most abundant off the bold coast of Cape 

 St. Lucas, CaHfomia." — Bennett, Whaling Voyage, ii. 232. 



Captain Sir James Eoss observed them as far south as 71° 50'. 



Professor Eschricht believes the Keporhak of Greenland and the 

 Bermuda W Tmle to be the same species, and that it migrates from 

 Greenland to Bermuda, according to the season ; and he states that 

 he cannot find any sufficient distiuction in the skeleton of the Cape 

 specimen in the Paris Museum, to separate it as a species from the 

 Greenland examples. 



Schlegel considers Balcena longimana of the North Sea, the 

 Rorqual du Cap, and the drawing he received from Japan, as aU 

 belonging to a single species, though he owns there are differences 

 between them. I am inclined to doubt these conclusions, and there- 

 fore, until we have more conclusive evidence, have considered it ad- 

 visable to regard them as separate ; especially as Cuvier's (Oss. Foss. 

 V. 381) description of the union of the lateral processes of the cer- 

 vical vertebrae of the Cape specimen is very Afferent from that of 

 the lateral processes of the Greenland specimens in the Museum, 

 received from Professor Eschricht (see Proc. Zool. Soc. 1847, 88). 



1. MEGAPTERA, Hunchbacked Whales. 



Blade-bone without an acromion or coraeoid process-. Body of the 

 cervical vertebra oblong, wider than high. Neural canal broad and 

 high. Eirst rib single-headed, without any internal process. 



Megaptera, Gray, Ann. Sf Mag. N. H. 1864, 207, 350. 



Pectoral fin elongate, about one-fifth of the entire length of the 

 animal. Dorsal fin low, truncate. Second cervical vertebra with two 

 short truncated lateral processes. Eirst rib simple-headed, without 

 any internal process. 



Head broad, moderate, flattened. Throat and chest with deep 

 longitudinal folds. Dorsal fin low or tuberous, behind the middle 

 of the body. The pectoral very large, one-fifth of the entire length 

 of the animal, as long as the head, consisting of only four fingers. 

 The eyes above the angle of the mouth. The navel is before the 

 front edge, the male organs under the back edge of the dorsal, and 

 the vent nearer the taU. ; the female organs are behind the back edge 

 of the dorsal, with the vent at its hinder end. 



Skull : nose narrow, broad behind, and contracted in front. Tem- 

 poral bone broad. Interorbital space wide. The upper maxillary 

 bone is rather broad, with a convex outer margin ; the intermaxU- 

 laries are moderately broad ; the nasal very small. The frontal bone 

 is broad, much and gradually narrowed and contracted over the orbit. 

 The lower jaw slender, miich arched, subcyhndrical, with a com- 

 pressed ridge-like ramiis near the base (see Eschr. <fe Eeinh. f. a, 

 p. 542). Cervical vertebrae well developed, more or less anchylosed. 



