146 



DAL^NOPTERIDiE. 



and united into rings. This is the case in the skeleton in the British 

 Museum, and in that, from the Thames, in llosherville Gardens. But 

 this is subject to some variation : in the specimen from BljTnouth, 

 prepared by Messrs. Gerrard, now in Alexandra Park, the lower 

 processes of the sixth and seventh cervical vertebraj are abortive — in 

 the sixth they are rediiced to small tubercles, and are entirely 

 wanting in the seventh. 



Fi?. .30. 



*^ 



Second cervical vertebra of Physalits atiiiquortim, from De i uuaMi«, 



Extreme width 43 inches; height 13^ inches. /■';.>; 



Width of articular surface 10 inches ; height 8 inches. 



Fig. 31. 



Fiflh cervical vertebra of Physalus mitiquonnu, from 

 Extreme width 351 inches ; height 10| inches. 

 Width of articular siurface 12 inches : hein-ht 7^ inches. 



The different English skeletons of this whale which I have ex- 

 amined and which are adult, or at least nearly of the same size (that 

 is, from 70 to 80 feet long), exhibit considerable variation in the form 

 and in the size of the perforation, and in the development of the 

 rings of the lateral processes of the hinder cervical vertebrae, showing 

 that there are several species, or, what is more probable, that their 

 bones are liable to a considerable amount of variation. 



The British Museum specimen was found floating on the sea in a 



