152 



B A LyEN OPTERIDiE . 



dejjression directly over the eyes, with a shallow groove between 

 them, and with a ridge in front gradually disappearing ere it reaches 

 the snout. The sides of the blowholes elastic, opening laterally. The 

 nares, each 4 inches in horizontal diameter, protected above and at 

 the sides by cartilaginous arches, which extend nearly to the surface 

 of the spiracles behind. The whole lining of the spiracles, breathing- 

 canals, and bronchial cavities was of a deep black. The septum 

 between the nares membranous. 



" The eyes on bony prominences which projected outwards and 

 downwards ; about 4 inches long. The conjunctiva whitish, the iris 

 very dark brown, the crystalline lens two-thirds of an inch in dia- 

 meter. 



"The lower jaw covered for nearly half its depth by strong firm 

 lips, turned inwards above. The jaw nowhere projected much over 

 the folds on the throat, and beneath the eye passed imperceptibly 

 into the general surface. The lower j aw fitted accurately into hollows 

 in the upper. The baleen extended from within 4 inches of the 

 snout to the angles of the mouth. The plates in the middle of the 

 series largest. The back of the mouth and the throat thinly covered 

 with soft white hair, inserted on the wrinkled skin. 



" An ideal section of both jaws, partially opening, showing the 

 palatine ridge, the projecting baleen, and the overlapping under-lips, 

 with the tongue in the distended pouch, is represented in P. Z. S. 

 1856, t. 45. f. 6." 



" The broad wing of the second cervical of the Nyhster Whale-^m 

 perforated by a hole as in the Copinshay and Laman Whales, and 

 the vertebrae appeared to correspond with theirs. The external 

 characters and colour also corresponded. The length was 65 to 68 

 feet, the pectoral from the head of the humerus nearly 8 feet, the 

 cranium 15 feet long. The blubber or speck was 8 or 10 inches 

 thick. They are not P. Boops, for three out of the four specimens 

 captured, all of which were examined, agreed with each other, and 

 differed from P. Boops in the upper and lower lateral processes of 

 the second cervical vertebra being united, leaving a subcentral ioia,- 

 men."—Eeddle, P. Z. S. 1856, 187-198. 



Mr. F. J. Knox, under the name of Balcena maximus horealis, Knox 

 (Cat. Prep. Whale, p. 5, and Edin. New Phil. Joum. 1833, 181), 

 notices a specimen of a whale found off North Berwick which was 

 80 feet long, the head 23 feet, and the tail 20 feet wide from tip to 

 tip. He describes it as having 13 dorsal and 43 lumbar, sacral, and 

 caudal vertebrse (Edin. N. PhU. Joum. 1834, 198). The skeleton of 

 this whale, purchased by the Town Council, was in the Zoological 

 Gardens, Edinburgh, and is figured in Jardine's 'Naturalist's Li- 

 brary,' vi. t. 5. It was last year removed to the New Museum in 

 Edinburgh, but on suspending it from the roof, the walls yielded to 

 the weight, and it had to be removed. 



The baleen is black ? Cervical vertebrae separate. Second lateral 

 process veiy large ; third, fourth, and fifth large, ringed ; sixth very 

 imperfect, upper process elongate, bent down, lower short, rather 

 depressed; seventh upper process elongate, lower wanting. The 



