Supplement to the catalogue of seals and whales in the British Museum

by John Edward Gray

The Bow-headed Whale, Scammond, American whalers.

Inhab. Behring’s Straits.

2. Balæna kuliomoch, Chamisso, Nov. Acta Natur. tab. 7. fig. 1; Gray, Ann. & Mag. N. H. 1870, vi. p. 202.

Balæna cullamacha, Chamisso, Nov. Act. xii. p. 251, t. ; Cope, Proc. Acad. Phil. 1868, p. 225, 1869, pp. 14, 17 & 40, fig. 4.

Inhab. North Pacific.

From wooden model made by the Aleutians.

2. NEOBALÆNA.

Skull rather depressed; brain-cavity nearly as long as the beak, depressed, much expanded on the sides, with a very deep notch on the middle of each side over the condyles of the lower jaw, and with a subtriangular crown-plate. The nose as broad as the expanded brain-cavity at the base, regularly attenuated to a fine point in front, and slightly arched downwards. Lower jaw laminar, compressed, high; the upper edge thin, and inflexed the greater part of its length, erect in front; the lower edge inflexed in front, the rest of the edge being simple. The baleen elongate, slender, several times as long as broad, with a fringe of a single series of fine fibres; enamelled surface smooth and polished, thick.

Figs. 1 & 2. Side view and top view of the skull of Neobalæna marginata, from Dr. Hector’s figures.