188 



ALLEN: NEW ENGLAND WHALEBONE WHALES. 



Cranial Measiircmcnis of Common Finhaclc. 



True records three Cape Cod skeletons, of which two had 14 and the other 15 ribs, but it is 

 possible that a terminal floating rib has been lost in some of these. 



The cervical vertebrae are all separate from each other. The great atlas has a single 

 large and bluntly tapering transverse process at the upper corner of each side, and its anterior 

 face bears the two facets for articulation with the occipital condyles. These facets are shghtly 

 concave, somewhat elliptical with their long axes nearly vertical. The second to fifth cervicals 

 have a long transverse process from the dorsal and one from the ventral corner of the centrum 

 on each side. These two unite distally to enclose the large vertebrarterial canal, which varies 

 much in its diameter but is usually completely ringed to the sixth vertebra. In this vertebra 

 the \'entral transverse process is but slightly developed, and no longer unites with the dorsal 

 process. In the Humpback Whale, the transverse processes are much less developed so that 

 the canal is usually open all its length. On the third and fourth cervicals, the transverse 

 process slants strongly backward. A slight dorsal crest marks the median line of these ver- 

 tebrae. 



