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Show 1873.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON NEW-ZEALAND WHALES. 131 united by the crests-the arch of the fourth and fifth on one side, and fifth and sixth on the other, being more united together above than the rest. The total length of the vertebrae of tbe New-Zealand specimen placed close together is 31 feet 6 inches ; the length of the head 8 feet 6 inches, but over the curve of the nose 10 feet; the length of the lower jaw 7 feet 8 inches, of the first rib 3 feet 6 inches, and of the middle rib 7 feet 4 inches, as measured by Mr. E. Gerrard, Jun., who observes that " the last small bone of the tail is wanting. There are eight chevron bones present; but I should think there ought to be one or two more small ones. One malar bone and the epiphyses of three vertebrae are wanting. I also think a few of the finger-joints are wanting ; but it is difficult to be sure, as some of them are loose and others covered with skin ;" but we will determine this point when they are cleaned. The nasal bone is strap-shaped, more than twice as long as broad, with thick rounded front ends, which are arched out in the middle. It is about 4£ inches wide. The skull and lower jaw weigh rather above 5% cwt., each lower jaw being 901b. (See fig. 1, pp. 135-137.) The ear-bone is very thick, triangular, with three nearly equal sides-which is very like two ear-bones which we have received from South Africa as those of the South-African Whale (Eubalaena australis), and the figures of the ear-bones of that species given by Van Beneden (Ost. Cet. t. i. & ii. figs. 13 & 14). The differences between those of the New-Zealand and the Cape Whale are so slight that it would be very difficult to express them in words, and, indeed, to distinguish the specimens from each other. According to Van Beneden, the ear-bones of the young Eubalcena australis are much more rounded, and have larger apertures compared with their size than in the adults (see his figure, t. i. & ii. f. 10 & 11). The os petrosum to which the New-Zealand specimen is attached is very like, but rather smaller than, the specimens we have of Eubalcena australis, said to have come from the Cape, and like those figured by Van Beneden (Ost. Cet. t. i. & ii. figs. 13 & 14). W e have a pair in the Museum very similar to the Cape and New- Zealand bones, sent to the Museum as the ear-bones of the Sperm- Whale by Mr. H . H. Russell; but they differ from the three other specimens in having a much larger os petrosum, and a much longer strap-shaped truncated lobe. It may be observed that the ear-bones figured by M . van Beneden as those of his Baleena biscayensis (t. vii. figs. 4-6), which he received from Mr. Cope as the ear-bones of his Baleena cisarctica, are very like those of Eubalcena and Macleayius, and, like them, are much more ventricose than those of the Greenland Whale. Perhaps this led Eschricht to observe that Baleena biscayensis was more like B. australis than B. mysticetus. Cervical vertebree all united by their bodies into one mass and to the first dorsal vertebra, and, all but the first dorsal, by the crests of the dorsal processes, which form a high arched ridge, the crest of the second vertebra being much the largest and highest. All the 9* |