0. CUVIERIUS. 



1 . Cuvierius latirostris, 

 Physalus latirostris, Flower, Vroc. Zool. Soc. 18G4, 410-414. ^^^ /-/JU^ 



Inhab North Sea. Skeleton of young specimen in the museinU 



ot the late Pi-ofessor Lidth de Jeude, at Utrecht. 



" Tn the collection of the late Professor Lidth de Jeudc, at Utrecht, 

 ^ a fine skeleton of a Fin-Whale. It was obtained on the coast of JL^J^ a^v.^ 

 Holland. It was from a young animal. The epiphyses were de- C>C ^^^ 

 tached from both ends of the bodies of all the vertebra between the '^^'^'^^^ 

 axis and the last t^vo or three of the tail; aLso from both ends of y-/ ^^/^^ 

 the humerus and bones of the forearm. The exocci],ital, parietal, /^^^^f-"^ 

 and squamosal bones were non-united; and moreover the processes A^^-^^^ 

 ot the vertebras Mere imperfectly ossified, as shown by the condition ■ 

 of their enrk, and their shortness compared with the large size of 

 the bodies of the bones. It was more advanced, however, than the 

 specimen examined at the Hague. 



" The length of the cranium is t>' ] 0" ; of the vertebral column, the 

 bones being placed close together, without the epiphyses 31' 2"- to 

 this must be added at least o feet for the thickness of the epiphyses 

 and the intervertebral spaces ; so tliat the whole animal could not 

 have been imich short of 50 feet in length. The number of vertebraj 

 IS L. /, D. lo, remainder (of which 15 or 16 are lumbar) 4'>=(J4 

 ihe column is quite complete, and ends, not in an elongated bone 

 composed ot two or three centrums anchylosed, but in a small flat 

 circu ar, disk-like bone half an i.uh in diameter. The penultimate 

 vertebra is simple, short, rounded at the edges, and about an inch in 

 diameter. The one before this is much larger in every direction 

 increasing rapidly at its anterior end. ' ' 



" The cranium presents many of the characters Ijefore attributed to 

 the genus F/it/salus, but with some peculiarities that I have not met 

 with in any other specimen. The most remarkable of these is the 

 great width of the rostrum, whicli, instead of gradually and steadily 

 contracting from the base to the apex, as in P. antlquornm and the 

 members the genera Sihh„M!us and BaUm^jfcm, continues as far 

 as the middle with very little diminution of width, so that the outer 

 border is much more strongly convex in the anfeiior half. This is 

 occasioned by the width of the maxillary bone, which more resembles 

 that oi Megaptera hnr/hwnia. The great difference of the proi)or- 

 tional breadth of the beak to the length of the cranium in this 

 specimen, as compared with other Fin-Whales, is seen in the Table at 

 p. 112 and m the Table of dimensions below. I may mention also 

 that the breadth of the palatine surface of the maxillary, measured 

 m a straight line, at the middle of the beak, is IG", whereas in the 

 cranium of a ('ommon Fin-^Miale (P. antlquonnn) in the Museum 

 ot the Koyal C olh-e of Surgeons, of almost the same length (viz 

 9 3 ) it is but 11 1". The na^al bones arc very broad and .short 

 raised to a ridge in the middle line, and hollowed on each side on 

 the upper surface and anterior border, though to a less extent than 

 in the common species. The orl)ital plate of the frontal resembles 

 in Its general form that of P/ii/sulus antiquorun,, but is rather less 



