124 BAL^NOPTERIDiB. 



holes to near the tip, where they gradually taper ; the temporal bones 

 appear more quadrangular. The skeleton is in the Berlin Museum. 

 It was taken in the Elbe, 1822. 



According to Professor Eschricht, this is the most common whale 

 in the Greenland seas. In the ' Danish Transactions ' he has given a 

 figure of this species, and a very detailed account of its anatomy and 

 development, chiefly founded on the examination of the foetus. 



He observes, " This animal is always infested with Diadema Balx- 

 narum, and with a species of Otion, which he regards as new, whUe 

 the Cirripedes are never found on any species of Balcenoptera. On 

 the other hand, the Tnbicinella, Coronula Balcenaris, and Otions are 

 often found on the Balama Mysticetus or Eight Whale of the Southern 

 Seas " (see Eschricht, 144). 



The following descriptions must be referred to this species with 

 doubt, as both agree with true Balcenopterce in the position of the 

 genital organs and vent compared with the dorsal fin, and Eabricius 

 especially says the pectoral fin is composed of five fingers. 



Ascanius (Icon. Eer. Nat. iii. t. 26) gives a figure of a female 

 Eorqual with a plaited belly, 66 feet long, from the North Sea, which 

 he thought might be B. museulus of Linnseus (it is not weU copied 

 by Bonnaterre, E. M. t. 3. f. 1, and Schreber, t. 335) ; it has a 

 large pectoral fin, about two-ninths the length of the body; but 

 the drawing is not so good as the others in the work, and the fin is 

 so awkwardly applied to the body, that perhaps its size may depend 

 on the incompetence of the artist. The dorsal fin, which is only 

 indicated as if doubtful in the original figure, is continued to the 

 tail, but in Bonnaterre's copy it is represented as of equal authority 

 with the other part. 



0. Eabricius (Eaun. GroSnl. 37), five years after, described a 

 Balcenoptera under the name of B. Boops, Linn., which appears to 

 differ from B. Physalus, for he says — " Pinnae pectorales magnse, 

 obovato-oblongse, margine postica Integra, regione cubiti parum 

 fractsB, antica autem rotundato-crenatse." And, he continues, "Ante 

 nares in vertice capitis tres ordines convexitatum circularium, huic 

 forsitan pecuHare quid," — " Pinna dorsalis compressa, basi latior, 

 apice acutiuscula, antice sursum repanda, postice fere perpendieu- 

 laris," and " Corpus pone pinnam dorsalem incipit carina acuta in 

 pinnam caudalem usque pergens." 



Eudolphi, and after him Schlegel, refer B. Boops, 0. Eabricius, 

 to this species ; and Professor Eschricht has no doubt that Bdlcma 

 Boops of 0. Eabricius is intended for this species, as it is called 

 Keporkalc by the Greenlanders. If this be the case, Eabricius's de- 

 scription of the form and position of the dorsal fin and the position 

 of the sexual organs is not correct. 



Brandt, in the list of Altaian animals (Voy. Alt. Orient. 1845, 4to), 

 has adopted this opinion, and formed a section for Balcenoptera 

 longimana, which he calls Boops, merely characterized as " Pectoral 

 elongate." 



Schlegel refers the Borqualus minor of Knox to this species, pro- 

 bably misled by the LuacCurate figures of this species in Jardine's 



