130 



BALJENOPTEKIDiB. 



" They fed mucli upon grass (Zostera) growing at the bottom of the 

 sea : in their great bag of maw he found two or three hogsheads of a 

 greenish grassy matter." — Phil. Trans, i. 13. 



Baleen from Bermuda, called Bermuda finner, is extensively im- 

 ported ; it is similar to the baleen of the Grey Finner. 



4. Megaptera Kuzira. The Euzira. 



Dorsal small, and behind the middle of the back ; the pectoral fin 

 rather short, and less than one-fourth the entire length of the body ; 

 the nose and side of the throat have round warts ; belly plaited. 



Balsena antarctica, Temm. Faun. Japan. 27. 



Balsenoptera antarctica, Temm. Faun. Japan, t. 30 (not t. 23). 



Megaptera antarctica, Gray, Zool. Freb, $■ Terrm; 17 ; Cat. Cetac. B. M. 



1850, 80. 

 ? Balsenoptera longimana, Schrench, Amur-Lande, 192. 



Inhab. Japan. ? Amur-Land. 



Skull in Mus. Leyden, fide Van Beneden. 



The figure in the ' Fauna Japonica ' is from a drawing brought 

 home by M. Siebold, not accompanied by remains. M. Siebold ob- 

 serves that the Japanese distinguish three varieties : — 



1. Sato Euzira. Black ; nose more elongate and rounded, and the 

 pectoral long ; the belly and lower face of the pectoral are grey, with 

 white rays. 



2. Nagasu Kuzira. Paler ; nose more pointed ; the belly has ten 

 plaits. In both, the lower jaw is larger than the upper. 



3. Noso Kuzira. Distinguished from the first because the back 

 and fins are white-spotted. — Faun. Jap. 24. 



Chamisso figures a species of this genus from the Aleutian seas, 

 under the name of Aliomoch or Aliama ; when young, Aliamaga dach 

 (N. Acta Nat. Cur. xii. 258. 1. 18. f. 5; Fischer, Syn. Mamm. 527. 

 n. 4), from a wooden model made by the Aleutians : and Pallas (Zool. 

 Eosso-Asiat. i. 288) calls it Bal-cena AllamacJc. The pectoral fins are 

 long ; they, and the underside of the tail are white. 



Pallas, under the name of B. Boops ? (Zool. Eosso-Asiat. i. 291), 

 describes a whale which appears to belong to this genus, found at 

 Behring's Straits by SteEer, when he was shipwrecked. The head 

 was i, the pectoral fin \, the entire length, and the vent ^^ from 

 the head, as shown by the following measurements : — length, 50 feet ; 

 head, 12.feet ; pectoral fin, 10 feet long and 5 feet wide ; tail, 16 feet 

 wide, and the vent 35 feet from the head. If these measurements 

 are correct, the pectoral fin is shorter and much wider than it 

 generally is in this genus. The position of the dorsal fin is not 

 noted. 



In the Zoologia Eosso-Asiat. 293, Pallas described a whale under 

 the name of B. musadus, observed by Merle at Kamtschatka. It 

 was long and slender, ash-brown, white-clouded above, snow-white 

 beneath, and spotted on the sides. It was 22 feet 6 inches long ; the 

 dorsal was 6 feet from the tail, and 1 foot 11 inches high; behind 

 the fin the back was two-keeled ; the pectoral fin was rounded at the 



