88 



valve is -vvhite, with beautifully foliated laminae and a few graceful 

 spines. 



Hab. Australia. Mus. Cuming. 



June 8, 1847. 

 Harpur Gamble, Esq., M.D., in the Chair. 



The following papers were read : — 



1. On the FiNNER WhaLES, V^ITH the DESCRIPTION OF A NEW 



SPECIES. Bt j. e. Gray, Esq., F.R.S. etc. 



Sibbald has described and figured two specimens of Finner Whale. 

 Artedi, and after him Linnseus, regarded these figures as represen- 

 tations of separate sjjecies, but the characters \vhich they gavę for the 

 species appear to depend solely on the statė the specimens were 

 in when described and figured. These species have been generally 

 adopted in the Fauna of this country. 



The Whales appear to difFer greatly from one another in the de- 

 gree of mobility of the neck, as is well-shown in the union or sepa- 

 ration of the cervical vertebrse, and in the variations in the develop- 

 ment of their lateral and spinous processes. 



The union or separation of the cervical vertebrae appears to afford 

 good generic distinctions. 



Duvernoy, in the second edition of Cuvier's ' Comparative Ana- 

 tomy,' has observed, " In the Cetacea the seven cervical vertebrae 

 of the genus Balana are all soldered together, and sometimes the first 

 dorsal is equally soldered to the cervical. 



" In the genus Physeter the atlas is distinct, and the six other 

 vertebrse are soldered. 



" In the Delphinus the atlas and axis only are united, and the five 

 other vertebrse remain separate, but they are very thin. 



" Lastly, in the Ptorąuals (Pike W hales), Delphinus ganyeticus 

 (the genus Platanista), the Dugong and Lamantin, they are all or 

 nearly all separate." — Duvernoy in Cttv. Anat. Comp. ed. 2. i. 195. 



I may further observe, that in Balcenoptera rostrata, \vhich I have 

 considered as the type of Bal<snoptera, the second and third cervical 

 vertebrse are united by their spinous processes, while the fourth, fifth, 

 sixth and seventh vertebrse are separate and well.developed ; Mobile in 

 Phj/salus Boops, antiguorum and Sibbaldii, and in Megapteron longi- 

 rnanus they are all weIl-developed, and separate from one another. 

 In the Grampus ( Orca gladiator) the first five cervical vertebrae are 

 united together into one body, and the sixth and seventh are very thin. 



