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rOPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
merits employed showed the temperature to be about 3G‘4 and life was 
distributed over the whole area which had been examined. The specimens 
were of a dwarfed character, owing, probably, to the low temperature. 
Is Lepyrus hinotatus a British species ? — A gentleman who recently found 
this species — Mr. F. A. Black — and who communicated with Land and Water 
on' the subject, has elicited the following reply from J. Keast Lord : Lepy~ 
7'us hinotatus was once recorded by Stephens as being British, but that was 
many years ago. Then it was altogether blotted out of the list of British 
insects, and appears to have been entirely unknown until this year, when I 
am informed of another specimen having been taken besides the one above 
noted. 
Aimtomy and Distnhution of the Balcenopterce. — On this subject a memoir 
was laid before the Belgian Academy recently, by M. Van Beneden. The 
autlior concluded his paper which was of great length by stating that there are 
fowr Balcenopter a in the North Atlantic, two of large size and two small, and 
tliat these differ not only in external form, but by certain peculiarities of 
skeleton, as may be seen in the different specimens now in the European 
museums. These species are: (1.) Balemioptej'a rostrata. This animal 
reaches a length of from 25 to 30 feet j its pectoral fin is white in the middle. 
There are 48 vertebrae and 11 ribs, and the sternum has the form of a 
Homan cross. The museums in which there is a skeleton of this species are 
the following : Paris, Brussels, Gand, Christiania, Bremen, Halle, Greifs- 
wald, and the College of Surgeons, London. The author does not believe 
that fusion, even when nearly complete, of the second and third cervical has 
any zoological value whatever. It is a purely individual character. He 
does not share the opinion of those who think that this union is one of the 
characters which serve to distinguish Balcenoptera from Physalus. The axis 
is soldered to the eighth cervical in several skeletons of B. rostrata, in a 
skeleton of B. Swinhoei, and in one of B. honcerensis j in the latter the fourth 
cervical is further soldered to the third. (2.) B. borealis. This animal is 
from 30 to 35 feet long ; its pectoral fin is all black. The vertebrae are 
5G in number, the ribs are 14, and the sternum has the form of a disc. 
Its skeleton is in the museums of Brussels, Leyden, Bergen, and Berlin. 
(3.) B. musculus. This animal is from 70 to 80 feet long, sometimes 
even more than this ; its pectoral fins are black. It has G2 vertebrae, 
15 ribs, and the sternum has the form of a trhjle. It is the commonest 
of the species. Its remains are to bo found in Paris, Lyons, Boulogne, 
Saint-Brienc, Perpignan, Brussels, Antwerp, Louvain, London, Cambridge, 
Edinburgh, Alexandra I’ark, Isle of Wight, Christiania, Bergen, Greifswald. 
(4.) Bakcnoptera Sihbaldii. This animal is from 70 to 80 feet long. 
l*ectoral fins are black. It has G3 or 04 vertebrae and 15 or IG ribs. Its 
sternum is very feebly developed. There is a head at Copenhagen, and 
“ remains ” at the British Museum, at Hull, and at Edinburgh. Of these 
four species the one most often met is B. musculus. After it comes B, ros^ 
trata. * Tlio B. borealis and B. hiibbaldii are much more rare. 
Chair of Zooloyy in the Vnivci'sity of Dublin. — The Board of Trinity Col- 
lege have elected a Professor of Zoology in the room of Dr. Wright, recently 
appointed Professor of Botany. There were three candidates, and the board 
elected Mr. Alexander Macalister to the office. 
