BEAKED WHALES 231 



In this respect Berardius is at the opposite pole to 

 the Greenland whale, where the head is so enormous 

 as compared with the length of the vertebral column. 

 The skull of Berardius is remarkably symmetrical for 

 a toothed whale, as indeed is that of Mesoplodon, the 

 nasals standing up erect, and not sunk from the 

 vertex of the skull. The maxillae are furnished with 

 a strong oval tuberosity like those of Hyperoodon, but 

 not so strongly developed. Since in Hyperoodon 

 those convexities increase in the males from youth to 

 old age, it may be that the skeleton of Berardius 

 which Sir .W. Flower has so carefully described is 

 of a female or a young male.* That it is not a fully 

 adult example is shown by the large persistence of the 

 epiphyses, not only in the vertebral column but else- 

 where. The mesethmoid plate is short comparatively 

 speaking ; that is to say, compared with what we find 

 in Mesoplodon. The rami of the mandible are not 

 ankylosed together. The vertebral column has the 

 following formula : C. 7 ; D. 10 ; L. 12; Ca. 19 = 48. 

 Of the cervical vertebrae the atlas, axis, and the 

 third vertebra are united by their bodies. The first 

 two are also united by their neural arches. The 

 remaining vertebrae are quite separate. Sir W. 

 Flower observes that apart from the fusion between 

 these vertebrae, they are much like those of the 

 Beluga (Delphinapterus}. The dorsal and lumbar 

 vertebrae, especially the lumbar, contrast greatly with 

 those of Mesoplodon by reason of the shortness and 



* " On the Recent Ziphioid Whales, with a description of the 

 Skeleton of Berardius arnoitxi? Trans. Zool. Sac., viii., p. 203. 



