Zoological Society. 281 



Skeleton in the British Museum. Taken on the coast of Wales 

 and towed into Liverpool in 1846. 



The length of the skeleton of the Liverpool specimen is 38 feet ; 

 the head is 9 feet long. The vertebrae are 60 in number, and there 

 are 15 pairs of simple ribs. 



The cervical vertebrae are all separate, and nearly equally developed ; 

 the body of the cervical vertebrae is squarish oblong, about one-fourth 

 broader than high. The spinal canal is oblong, depressed, twice as 

 wide as high. The second vertebra is twice as thick as the other, 

 with two large broad lateral processes scarcely as long as half the 

 width of the vertebra, coming together at the end, but separate, and 

 leaving an oblong hole between them. The third, fourth, fifth and 

 sixth each with superior and inferior narrower lateral processes, the 

 upper one of the third being the narrowest, and gradually increasing 

 in thickness to the sixth ; the lower of the fourth rather the broadest, 

 and of the sixth the thickest and most tapering at the end. 



The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh have only two rather 

 short processes on each side, the upper process being the most slen- 

 der, compressed and bent down, and the lower one conical, stronger, 

 compressed ; the processes of the third vertebra are the thinnest, and 

 they gradually increase in thickness and strength to the seventh 

 or last. 



The specimen here described was mentioned in the papers of the 

 day as a spermaceti whale ! 



3. Physalus (Rorqualus) Sibbaldii. 



The transverse apophyses of the second cervical vertebra rather 

 elongated, united, leaving only a small subcentral hole ; of the other 

 cervical vertebrae slender, shorter and far apart, nearly straight, di- 

 rected out laterally. 



Inhab. Coast of Yorkshire. 



There is in the museum of the Hull Literary and Philosophical 

 Society a very perfect skeleton of this species, taken in the Humber, 

 which is fifty feet long. It has 64 vertebrae, as follows : cervical 7, 

 thoracic 16, lumbar and caudal 41 ; and the arms and paddles are 6 

 feet 9 inches long ; the ribs 16 pair, all simple. The baleen is black. 



This specimen is said to have been eight years old, but on what 

 authority I cannot learn. 



I have to thank my friend Mr. Pearshall, the curator of the above 

 museum, for his kindness in sending me a detailed drawing of the 

 natural size of the cervical vertebrae of this interesting species. 



For the purpose of comparison with the foregoing description, I 

 here add the following account of the cervical vertebrae of Megapteron 

 longimanus, or Hunchback Whale, from a fine skeleton in the col- 

 lection of the British Museum. 



The second cervical has two very large, thick, converging, lateral 

 processes, as long as half the diameter of the body of the vertebra. 

 The third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh have elongated, slender, 

 superior lateral processes, which bend rather downwards, and the 

 sixth and seventh rather forwards. The fourth and fifth have a very 

 short, rudimentary, inferior lateral process, which is smaller on the 



Ann. §■ Mag. N. Hist. Vol.xx. 20 



