242 Dr. J. E. Gray on the Oeographical XXXI. — On the Geographical Distrihution of the Balaenidae or Right Whales. By Dr. J. E. Geay, F.K.S., V.P.Z.S., F.L.S., &c. Peof. Van Beneden has read a paper to the Royal Belgian Academy on the geographical distribution of Les Baleines^ which is published in the first number of the ' Bulletin ' for 1868, accompanied by a map. He acknowledges only five species of Right Whales, having the following geographical distribution : — 1. B. mysticetus. The Arctic Ocean on both sides of Green-land, and on the coast of Siberia to the Sea of Okhotsk. 2. B. hiscayensis. The North Atlantic, from latitude 65° to 45°, and a belt across the Atlantic to the coast of the United States, from lat. 45° to 50°. 3. B. japonica. A band across the North Pacific from lat. 60° to 45° on the west coast of America and 45° to 30° on the coast of Japan. 4. B. australis. A belt across the South Atlantic from lat. 25° to 30° on the west coast of Africa and lat. 35° to 50° on the coast of South America. 5. B. antipodarum. In a similar belt across the South Pacific from the west coast of South America, in lat. 45°, to New Zealand. Thus it will be seen that M. Van Beneden supposes that Right Whales inhabit belts across all the seas except the Indian Ocean. This excejDtion is extraordinary, as Capt. Maury's chart shows that Right Whales are comparatively abundant in a belt between latitude 30° and 50° from the Cape of Good Hope to Australia. It is in this belt that Bal<xna marginata and B. australiensis are most probably found ; but M. Van Beneden ignores the existence of these species. Mr. Blyth also mentions a species of Right Whale, under the namie of B. indica, founded on some bones in the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which he says inhabits "the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, and occasionally enters the Persian Gulf." But this must be a mistake, as these places are situated in the torrid zone, which is to these animals, as Capt. Maury justly observes, " forbidden gromid ; and it is as physically impossible for them to cross the equator as it would be to cross a sea of flame. In short, these researches show that there is a belt, of from two to three thousand miles in breadth and reaching from one side of the ocean to the other, in which the Right Whale is never found." (Maury, Whale-Charts, p. 233.)
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