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Show 134 DR. J. E. GRAY ON NEW-ZEALAND WHALES. [Jan. 21, New Zealand by M. Duchange. He does not say from which specimen his figures were taken ; but they are probably from the old and young in Brussels. Neither of the figures represents the ear-bones of either of the two Whales (Caperea antipodarum and Macleayius australiensis)which we have received from New Zealand. Do the ear-bones figured really come from New Zealand 1 If they do, they indicate the existence of another New-Zealand Right Whale. M. van Beneden gives Baleena australis, Desmoulins, ' Diction-naire classique d'Histoire Naturelle,' p. 161, as a synonym of the New-Zealand species ; but M . Desmoulins remarks, this species was " observe'e par de Lalande," who collected it at Algoa Bay. Unfortunately there is no other skeleton known of the Baleena antipodarum than that which is in the Paris Museum, which wants the ear-bones on which the genus was founded. I am inclined to think it most probable that the skeleton at Paris does belong to Caperea, because, like the ear-bones which are the type of the genus, the skeleton, from the form of its blade-bone & c , is evidently referable to a peculiar group of the Right Whales; whilst the two kinds of ear-bones figured by M . van Beneden as belonging to that skeleton are both of the type usually found in the common form of Right Whales. It is to be regretted that the figures of the ear-bones given by M . van Beneden in the work above referred to are not very satisfactory, and do not give the impression that either he or his artist has very carefully studied them ; and one of the great wants of the text of his book is that his descriptions should be more detailed and taken from a single skeleton ; and when he describes a specimen from any other source it should be described separately, as otherwise he is apt to describe the bones of several distinct animals as belonging to one species, as he certainly has done in more than one instance, especially in his Baleena antipodarum and B. biscayensis. W e have received the skeleton of a second species of Right Whale from New Zealand, which was believed by Dr. Haast and the New- Zealand zoologists to be the same as the one described and figured as Caperea antipodarum ; but it is even more like, though quite distinct from, Eubalcena australis (the Cape Right Whale); and I now describe it as Macleayius austr aliensis; but the discovery of this Whale has thrown doubts on all our previous assumptions; and the ear-bones figured by M . van Beneden, if they are really from New Zealand, make the determination of the species even more doubtful. In these remarks I have taken no notice of the Pigmy Right Whale (Neobaleena marginata), found in N e w Zealand and West Australia, because that is at once known from all the others by its small size. MACLEAYIUS AUSTRALIENSIS. Macleayius austr aliensis, Gray, Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 105, f. 10 & 11, p. 371, f. 74 & 75 (from Krefft's photographs); Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales, p. 46 ; Synopsis of Whales and Dolphins, p. 2. Hab. Australian Seas (Kreffti), Coastof N e w Zealand (Dr. Haast). |