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' CETACEA. 33 
i. 
The skull figured, Zool. Erebus and Terror, t. 2, is 46°6 inches 
long, 28°0 at the beak, 23-0 inches wide at the orbit, 15°6 at the 
i _ notch, and 10°6 in the middle of the nose. The nose of the skull 
is elongate-triangular, with straight, regularly converging sides, 
not quite twice as long as the width at the notch. 
The first cervical vertebra is rather broader than long. The 
central hole is half as high again as broad. The second and third 
cervical vertebrze are united | together by the upper edge. 
The second cervical vertebra has a broad, much-expanded, 
lateral process, with an oblong central hole near the body of the 
vertebra, reaching rather more than half its length. 
The third, fourth, fifth and sixth cervical vertebre have two, 
or upper and lower, lateral processes. The upper process of the 
third is the shortest and least developed, and they mcrease in 
length to the sixth. The lower process of the third is the thickest. 
The fourth and fifth rather small, and im the sixth the basal 
_ part of the process is shorter and the upper part much elongated 
and thinner. 
_ The seventh is only the upper process, which resembles that 
_of the first dorsal in form, but is smaller. 
This species, which is the smallest of the family, scarcely if ever 
exceeds 25 or 30 feet in length. 
The skeleton of the ‘ young Balena Boops” (No. 1194, Mus. 
Col. Surg.), which formed part of the Hunterian collection, and 
is probably the skeleton of the B. rostrata described by John 
Hunter (as the head is about 4 feet long, which agrees with the 
measurements of his figure of the animal), belongs to this 
species. 
Dr. Knox examined a young Rorqual, 9 feet 11 inches long, 
3 feet from snout to ear, and 4 feet 8 inches im girth, at the end 
of the folds, which was cast ashore near Queensferry, Firth of 
Forth, in 1834. He considers it quite distinct from the Great ~ 
-Rorqual (B. Boops), because it has only 11 dorsal, 36 lumbar, 
sacral and caudal vertebrz ; but he considers it the same as B. 
rostrata of O. Fabricius, Hunter and Scoresby (Edin. N. Phil. 
Journ. 1834, 199). Dr. Knox’s specimen is figured by Jardine 
under the name of the Lesser Rorqual (Nat. Lid. vi. t. 7). 
Schlegel (Fauna Japon. 24, and Abhand. 44) erroneously refers to 
this figure as a representation of Balenoptera arctica (antarc- 
tica) ; for though the pectoral in the figures is larger in propor- 
tion than they should be for a Balenoptera, they are not of the 
shape of the fins of Megaptera; and the artist has made the fins 
_of both the animal and skeleton of the larger Rorquals too large 
in proportion for the other parts of the body, and perhaps the 
Iength of the body is fore-shortened. 
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