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Show 188 MR. W. H. FLOWER ON BALAENOPTERA CAROLINAE. [Mar. 12, certainty; and it is on this subject that I propose to address a few remarks to the Society. The author has evidently taken pains to compare his specimen with most of the more or less accurate descriptions of Fin-Whales previously published, and has come to the conclusion that it belongs to a species unknown to science, and has accordingly designated it by a new specific name, Balcenoptera caro-lince*. That it was not the common Fin-Whale (Physalus antiquorum, Gray, Pterobaleena communis, Esch., and Balcenoptera musculus, auct.) there could be no doubt, although belonging to the same genus. The possibility of its being of the same species as the whale of which the skeleton is preserved in the Museum at Hull, and on which Dr. Gray founded his Physalus sibbaldii (P. Z. S. 1847, p. 92), did not escape the author's noticef. Not having had access to the more recent volumes of the ' Proceedings ' of this Society, he had only the original very brief description upon which to base his judgment- a description from which I also failed to recognize the species when I found an example of it in the museum of the late Professor Lidth de Jeude at Utrecht, and redescribed it under the name of Physalus latirostris (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 410)£. After an examination of the Hull skeleton in 1865, its identity or close affinity with the last-named specimen became apparent, and the characters in which these two skeletons agreed, and by which they could be distinguished from P. antiquorum were pointed out (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 473). In nearly all of the special characteristics of P. sibbaldii the whale described by Malm agrees. I may particularly mention the breadth of the middle of the rostral part of the skull, which, as compared with the entire length of the cranium, is in the Hull Whale as 26 to 100, in the Utrecht Whale as 27 to 100, in Malm's as 26*4 to 100, while in six specimens of P. antiquorum it varies between 18 and 21 to 100. Another important character is the extremely rudimentary size and simple oval form of the sternum, in which Malm's Whale agrees perfectly with the Utrecht skeleton, and differs completely from all known examples of P. antiquorum. A third striking difference between P. sibbaldii and P. antiquorum is the greater length, relatively and absolutely, of the metacarpals and phalanges ; in this character the new specimen corresponds exactly with the others. Among other characters in which a similar correspondence exists are the form of the nasal bones, of the heads of the anterior ribs, of the spinous process of the axis, and the uniform dark colour of the baleen. * Being dedicated " a la femme, tendrement cherie et hautement appreciee par nous, a laquelle nous sommes uni par les liens de mariage." f Malm, speaking of this skeleton, says, " Si nSanmoins il devait appartenir a la m e m e espece de notre exemplaire, nous ne voudrions pas pourtant adopter la denomination de sibbaldii, cette denomination ayant deja ete en 1808 employee par Neill (Trans. Wern. Soc. vol. i. p. 201) pour un autre baleinoptere." I think this must be a mistake, as 1 am unable to find any such denomination used by Neill in the paper referred to. % This skeleton is now in the British Museum. |