248 PROFESSOR TURNER'S ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT FINNER WHALE. 



form with the corresponding bones in the Longniddry whale. Hence we arrive 

 at the conclusion, that the Longniddry whale is a specimen of the Balcenoptera 

 Sibbaldii, or Physalus Sibbaldii of Gray. 



Two years before the publication of Reinhardt's memoir, a fin whale, about 

 54 feet long, came ashore alive at Gothenburg, on the west coast of Sweden. 

 It was secured by Professor Malm, the superintendent of the Museum in that 

 city, and was carefully examined by him. He published an elaborate mono- 

 graph, with numerous photographic illustrations, descriptive of the capture of 

 the animal, its form, colour, proportions, and dimensions, with a detailed ac- 

 count of the skeleton, and a number of observations on its visceral anatomy.* The 

 animal was a male, and had not reached its full growth. Its colour was a deep 

 slate tint, with somewhat paler tints on the sides, whilst the lower surface was 

 mottled with patches of milk white, of different sizes and shapes. The flippers 

 were white on the inner surface, and the lobes of the tail at the under part 

 whitish. The distance from the anterior part of the base of the flipper to its 

 free extremity, measured in a straight line, was 7 feet 4 inches, whilst the dis- 

 tance between the extreme points of the tail was about 11 feet. The baleen 

 was uniformly of a deep black slate colour, whilst the hairs at the free margins 

 of the plates were of a brown soot colour. The vertebrae were 63 in number, 

 and there were 15 pairs of ribs. Malm considered it to be a new species, and 

 named it Balcenoptera Carolina?. 



From a comparison of its osteological characters with those of the B. Sib- 

 baldii, more especially the resemblance in the breadth of the beak, the form of 

 the nasal bones, the relative and absolute length of the metacarpals and phalanges, 

 and the spine of the axis, as well as from the uniform dark colour of the baleen, 

 Professor Flower came to the conclusion,! that Malm's whale ought not to be re- 

 garded as a distinct species, but was merely another immature specimen of the 

 Balamoptera [Physalus) Sibbaldii. In this conclusion he has been supported 

 by Professor Reinhardt, who states \ that, in his opinion, " Eschricht's ' Tun- 

 nolik,'tke 'Steypireythr ' of the Icelanders, and, finally, the whale described by 

 Malm, are only one and the same species, which appears to be one of the most 

 common in our northern seas, and the systematic name of which must be 

 Balcenoptera Sibbaldii." 



If I am correct in regarding the Longniddry whale as the B. Sibbaldii, then — 

 Professors Flower and Reinhardt being also correct in their supposition — its 

 characters should closely correspond, allowance being made for the different sizes 

 of the two animals, with those of Malm's whale. In the colour, both of the skin 

 and the baleen ; in the shape of the tail and pectoral fin ; in the relative pro- 



* " Monographie illustr^e du Baleinoptere," Stockholm, 1867. For the opportunity of consulting 

 this work, three copies only of which are, I believe, in this country, I am indebted to my friend, Mr J. 

 W. Clark, of Cambridge. 



f Proc. Zool. Soc, March 12, 1868. J Memoir, cited above. 



