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CETACEAN GALLERY. 
species. This skeleton is believed to be the only one in any of the 
European ^luseums. The whalebone is very short and of a yellow 
colour. The two anterior ribs are fused together, and the sternum 
is unusually long and narrow. 
Meyaptera. In this group the head is of moderate size, and the 
baleen-plates short and broad. The cervical vertebrae are free. 
The most conspicuous distinguishing character is the immense 
length of the pectoral fin, about one fourth of that of the entire 
animal. On account of the low rounded form of the dorsal fin, 
they are commonly called “ Humpbacks ” by the whalers. The 
skeleton exhibited, near the middle of the room, is that of a not 
quite adult animal from Greenland. Behind it are a skull and some 
bones of a full-sized specimen from the coast of California. There 
is also at the further end of the room the skull of a young animal 
from New Zealand. These specimens illustrate the wide geogra- 
phical range of the members of the genus, and also the difficulty 
of dividing them satisfactorily into species. As in the case of so 
many other Cetacean genera, some zoologists maintain that the 
animals inhabiting dififerent seas must belong to different species, 
and they have been named accordingly ; but if this is the case, 
the characters by which they are to be distinguished from each 
other have not yet been clearly pointed out : hence in this collec- 
tion they are all called Meyaptera hoops, the specific name under 
which they first appear in zoological literature. 
Bal(Bnoptera. Head comparatively small and flat, pointed in 
front. Body long and slender. Skin of throat plicated. A small 
triangular, rather falcate, dorsal fin. Baleen short and coarse. 
Cervical vertebrse free. Pectoral flipper small, narrow and pointed, 
with but four fingers. This genus contains the various species of 
Rorquals, Fin-Whales, Fin-backs, Finners or Razor-backs, as they 
are variously called, some of which are found in almost every sea. 
Among them is the most gigantic of all animals, Balcenoptera 
sibhaldii, which attains the length of 80 feet, and is common in the 
seas betw^een Scotland and Norway. The skeleton suspended in 
the Gallery, near the further end, on the left-hand or window side, 
is that of a young animal, being only 52 feet in length. Almost 
of equal colossal proportions is the Common Rorqual (Balcenoptera 
musculus), found throughout the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, 
