Transactions of the New Zealand Institute 1884 I. — Zoology

Art. I.—Notes on the Skeleton and Baleen of a Fin-whale (Balænoptera musculus?) recently acquired by the Otago University Museum. By T. Jeffery Parker, B.Sc. Lond., Professor of Biology in the University of Otago. [Read before the Otago Institute, 14th October, 1884.] Plate VI Rather more than a year ago, a large whale's skeleton was exhibited in many parts of the colony by Captain Jackson Barry, who finally brought it to Dunedin. On visiting the shed where the bones were roughly set up, I found the animal to be a Balænoptera, a genus hitherto not represented in this Museum; and, as the number of bones missing was comparatively small, and the baleen was perfect, I entered into negotiations with Mr. Barry, with the ultimate result of securing the specimen as soon as it had ceased to “draw” as a show. In one of his valuable contributions to our knowledge of the Cetacea,* “On a Lesser Fin-whale recently stranded on the Norfolk Coast.” Proc. Zool. Soc., 1864, p. 252. Professor Flower remarks: “We have at present so little definite information upon the specific characters and geographical distribution of the Cetacea, that it is desirable that no opportunity should be lost of putting on record any facts which may contribute to the better knowledge of the natural history of even the most common species of this interesting group of Mammalia.” I have, therefore, thought it advisable to communicate to the Institute a few notes on the specimen in question, with a view of furnishing a series of measurements for comparison with those already on record, and of calling attention to one or two points in which the specimen differs from hitherto described examples. It also seems desirable that an accurate account of the skeleton as it reached the Museum should be placed on record, so that any one interested in the matter may have no difficulty in finding out at once how far the specimen, as mounted, is “restored.”