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MAMMALIA. 
tively small, and scarcely more than lialf tlie length, of that of the 
B. mysticetus ; 4th, that it is regularly infested with a parasite 
belonging to the genus Coronula , and that it belongs to the tem- 
perate North Atlantic as exclusively as the B. mysticetus belongs 
to the icy sea, so that it must be considered exceptional when 
either of them stray into the range of the other. Moreover, they 
consider that in its native seas it was to be found farther towards 
the south in the winter (viz., in the Bay of Biscay, and near 
the coast of North America down to Cape Cod), while in the 
summer it roamed about around Iceland, and between this island 
and the most northerly part of Norway. Dr. Eschricht considers 
that this was the Whale captured by the Basque whalers in the 
seventeenth century ; hence he has called it B. biscayensis.” Un- 
fortunately, Mr. Brown’s valuable paper was not published when 
our previous notice of the Whales was committed to press, and we 
have not the space to quote from it so extensively as might be 
desirable. As regards the colour of the baleen, he informs us that 
it is variable. “ In the young the laminoe are frequently striped 
green and black, but on the old animal they are occasionally alto- 
gether black ; often some of the laminae are striped with alternate 
streaks of black and white, whilst others want this variegation. 
Whale-bone is said to be occasionally found white without the 
animal differing in the slightest degree ; ” and, accordingly, this 
character loses its supposed importance as being a peculiarity of 
the exceedingly dubious Scrag Whale indicated by' Dudley. 
It appears that the Balcena mysticetus Occasionally attains to a 
length of sixty-five feet ; and Mr. Brown remarked of it, 
“ Though per se, the tail has no power, yet, as the instrument 
through which the lumbar muscles (the tendinous attachments of 
which seem to be prolonged into the cartilaginous substance of the 
tail) work, it exerts enormous force. The figure usually engraved 
in boys’ books of sea adventures, and copied from Scoresby’s 
crew up into the air, is generally looked upon by all the whalers 
to whom I have shown it as an artistic exaggeration. Accidents 
of this nature are very rare, and never proceed to such an extent ; 
and I have no doubt that Dr. Scoresby’s artist has taken liberties 
with his description, that worthy navigator being himself above 
any suspicion of exaggeration for the sake of effect. Captain 
Alexander Deuchars, who has now made upwards of fifty voyages 
