Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Marine Mammals: In the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, Part I.-Cetacea, Part II-Sirenia, Part III-Pinnipedia
In selecting from the extensive literature of the subject generic and specific names for the Cetacea, Sir Wm. H. Flower's Catalogue of the specimens in the British Museum, 1885, has been taken as the guide. His classification of all the Baleen Whales in a single family Balaenidae has not, however, been adopted, as the structural characters which collectively distinguish the Right Whales from the Rorquals are so numerous and important as to justify a division into the two families Balaenidae and Balaenopteridae.
In the classification of the Pinnipedia the generic and specific divisions adopted in my Challenger Report, 1887, on these mammals have been followed in the Catalogue.
The description of the specimens in each part, for each family, genus, and species respectively, has been preceded by a brief statement of the distinguishing characters, so that the Catalogue can be used by the student as a hand book or guide in discriminating the families, genera, and species to which they belong.
The illustrations are in some cases from the blocks em ployed in my published memoirs referred to in the text, but the majority have been specially prepared for the Catalogue, either from photographs or from original drawings of the objects. I wish particularly to thank Mr Ernest J. Henderson, the Assistant Conservator, for many photographs, especially those of the skeletons suspended in the Museum reproduced in Plates I., and for the help which he has given in making the measurements detailed in the Catalogue. To Mr James T. Murray I am indebted for many careful drawings.
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