
SEALS AND WHALES OF THE L.M.B.C. DISTRICT. 267 
From snout to commencement of dorsal 
POL Lah Wes WUD 2. tassios Goede ve « 18- 0 
ee OM NTT Carcass scans oe aeglessininnle anys Do 
BIELGHASMOUL FO ClLOACA) saccecc..+scosovaseies's Dist sO 
I had no opportunity of examining the viscera, but 
learned from the butchers that a quantity of shrimps were 
found in the stomach. 
The genus Megaptera is distinguished from the genus 
Balena, or whalebone whales, by the presence of a dorsal 
fin or hump; by the belly being plaited or deeply grooved, 
and the plates of baleen being broad and short: which 
characters agree with this specimen. The longest plate of 
baleen measures about two feet long by five and a half 
inches at base, and the plates were so close together that 
IT counted thirty-eight in the length of a foot. The creature 
was quite black, except the belly, which was mottled and 
streaked with white, and the pectoral fins were milk-white 
except a black blotch here and there. 
The carcase was purchased by Mr. Brock, of Clement 
Street, Vauxhall Road, who most liberally presented the 
skeleton to the Museum, where it was carefully mounted 
by Mr. Henry Reynolds, the Museum Taxidermist. 
Sub-Order II. ODONTOCETI. 
Family 2. ZIPHIIDm. 
Hyperoodon rostratus, Chemn. 
Gray (Cat. 1874, p, 831) says, ‘“‘This is one of the most 
generally caught whales on our coast.’ Byerley notes 
four examples of the common Beaked or Bottle-nosed 
Whale* which have occurred in our district, to which I 
have to add a fifth. Byerley’s notes are as follows :— 
* Bell’s ‘Brit. Quad. ” ed. 2, p. 421; Gray’s ‘‘Catal.” p. 330; Flower’s 
‘List of Cetacea,” 1885, p. 9, 
