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Show 1901.] LARYXX OF CERTAIN' WHALES. 279 Flower and Lydekker, in their text-book of "Mammals,"' state that very little is known of the soft parts of this small Cachalot, and it seems, therefore, worth while to figure, side by side, corresponding views of the larynx of Cogia and Balcenoptera, in order to bring out more forcibly the differences in this organ between the Odontocete and the Mystacocete; for, although the text-books of earlier authors, such as Owen, Huxley, Stannius, and others, refer to the fact, yet in such modern works as Wiedersheim no mention is made of it, and it may be that other zoologists in the same case as myself will appreciate the differences when presented pictorially. The young Rorqual was very evidently newly born ; the navel had not healed up ; the umbilical cord still remained attached to the inner surface of the abdominal wall; umbilical arteries and vein still existed, and had evidently only recently been ruptured. I had a plaster cast made of half of the body of the animal, intending to place the skeleton therein, in the way that the late Prof. Flower had had carried out in the British Museum. I found, however, that the bones were but slightly ossified and were of no use for Museum purposes. The animal measured 9 ft. 9| inches in a straight line, from the tip of the snout to the bottom of the caudal notch (10 ft. 1 inch along the curve of the back). Its greatest diameter was 5 ft. 2| inches, at a distance of 5 ft. 7 inches from the snout. The specimen of Cogia only came into m y possession a week after it had been washed ashore. When I arrived at Purakanui- about an hour's railway journey from Dunedin-I found that the original finder had cut the animal about considerably. The blubber from the back, including the dorsal fin, and the " spermaceti " from the head, had been carried away, as well as the lower jaw and the caudal fluke. The head had been very skilfully disarticulated from the atlas, but had not been removed. The body had been opened, and the viscera were lying about. The body and organs were much mixed up with sand that had been blown over them. However, I ultimately obtained the entire carcase, as well as most of the internal organs. The specimen was a fully grown, and apparently adult, male ; it measured 8 ft. 9 inches in a straight line from the tip of the snout to the notch in the fluke; of this the head occupied 16 inches, i. e. between one-sixth and one-seventh of total length. I did not make any attempt to measure the girth. The pectoral fin was 14 inches long in a straight line, and 15 inches along the slightly-curved anterior margin; its posterior margin presented a rounded angle 4 inches from the base and 8 inches from the tip, the distal moiety of this side being concave. The fin was 5 inches across at the base, 5 | inches at its widest. The fluke, or tail-fin, was 27 inches from point to point; the median notch was 5 | inches deep, and this point was 10 inches from the plane of origin of the fluke from the tail, so that the total length of the fin was 15| inches. 19* |
