Dr. J. E. Gray on the ff^alebone-Ffliales. 347 



the practical workingman and the trader being in advance of the 

 scientific zoologist. 



5. The diflference in form of the tympanic bones is great, and 

 affords good characters, not only to separate the species from 

 one another, but also to group them into families and genera. 



6. The fact that some "NVTialebone- Whales have the first rib 

 furnished with a double head, one head attached to the last 

 cervical and the other to the first dorsal vertebra, which had 

 been observed by Rudolphi, Yarrell, Dubar, and Schlegel, 

 though apparently considered as only to be found in the young 

 state of the species by the latter author, disappearing as the 

 animal increases in age, proves, I believe, to be a permanent 

 peculiarity of considerable importance, and justifies Lilljeborg 

 in using it as a character for the discrimination of the species, 

 and even for separating the Whales into groups or genera. 

 That it is not a peculiarity of the young state is proved by its 

 being seen well developed in the skeleton of the gigantic Ostend 

 Whale, which was formerly exhibited at Charing Cross and in 

 other places. This peculiarity is found both in the Right Whales 

 and in the Finners. 



Indeed, when the skeletons of the specimens from different 

 localities can be examined, there are no want of characters to 

 separate the Whales into genera and species — as, for example, 

 the breadth of the upper jaw, the sife and form of the ramus of 

 the lower jaw, the form of the lateral processes of the cervical 

 vertcbrse, the number of the dorsal and caudal vertebrae, the 

 form and size of the articulating surfaces of the vertebrae, the 

 form and number of the ribs, the form of the os hyoides and of 

 the sternum, the shape of the scapula and the development or 

 non-development of the coracoid process, the form and propor- 

 tions of the bones of the arm, and the number and comparative 

 length of the bones of the paddle. I am convinced that, when 

 more skeletons have been collected, the number of the species of 

 these animals will be greatly increased, especially if the bones of 

 the skeletons are kept separate, and not set up, so that the bones 

 of the different species can be accurately compared. For it is to 

 be observed, probably from the eye not being able to take in the 

 peculiarities of so large a subject, that some of the best com- 

 parative anatomists have regarded skeletons from very dif- 

 ferent localities, as the Megapiene from the Northern Seas and 

 from the Cape, as the same species, from a comparison of set-up 

 skeletons, which were at once declared to be distinct when the 

 separate bones were compared in detail. 



TheWhalebone- Whales [Mysticete) are characterized by having 

 only very rudimentary teeth, that never cut the gum, and by 

 Jiaving cross rows of flexible horny plates, fringed on the inner 



