1864.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON BRITISH CETACEA. 205 
Nuchal arch high, subcireular. Mecarrertna. Hunchbacked 
Whales. 
1. MreGApTERA. 
Pectoral fin elongate, about one-fifth of the entire length of the 
animal. Dorsal fin low, truncate; second cervical vertebra with two 
short truncated lateral processes; first rib simple-headed, without 
any internal process. 
Megaptera, Gray, Zool. E. & T. 16; Cat. Cetac. 23. 
Hunch- or Humpbacked Whales, Dudley and the whalers. 
Kyphobalena, Eschricht, Nord. Wallthiere, 1845. 
Megapteron, Gray, Zool. E. & T. 61. 
The upper maxillary bone is rather broad, with a convex outer 
margin; the intermaxillaries are moderately broad; the nasal very 
small. The frontal bone is broad, much and gradually narrowed and 
contracted over the orbit. The lower jaw slender, subcylindrical, with 
a compressed ridge-like ramus near the base (see Eschr. & Reinh. 
f.a, p. 542). The atlas vertebra with an oblong body, and with a 
large and short broad lateral process from the upper part of each 
side. The upper and lower lateral processes of the second cervical 
vertebra very thick, short, blunt, and separated at the ends; of the 
other cervical vertebre slender, more elongate, separate. Neural 
arch of the cervical vertebre strong, high, with a large subcircular 
cavity for the spinal marrow. The bodies of the cervical vertebree 
oblong, roundish, or subquadrangular, rather wider than high. The 
scapula short and broad, without any, or a very small, coracoid 
process. The arm-bone long; wrist with a broad flat spur; the 
fingers four, elongate, very unequal in length, the third longest, the 
second rather shorter, the fourth much shorter, and the first short- 
est; the longest is formed of eight joints (see Eschr. Dan. Trans. 
1845, t. 2. f. D, & t. 3. f. 4). The front ribs thick, oblong, com- 
pressed, without any swelling or compressed dilated part near the 
condyle. ; 
In the ‘Catalogue of Cetacea,’ p. 24, by a slip of the pen, the first 
rib is incorrectly said to be forked at the end near the vertebra. 
The cervical vertebrz are liable to be more or less anchylosed 
together. In two specimens, one of M. longimana, in the Museum, 
all the cervical vertebree are free. In the young specimen in the 
Derby Museum at Liverpool, which is probably M. longimana, the 
second and third cervical vertebree are very thin and anchylosed, both 
by the body and the neural arch. In the specimen of M. poeskop in 
Paris, according to Cuvier, the second and third cervicals are united 
by the upper part of their body; and in a specimen, apparently of 
the same species, from the Cape, in the British, Museum the second 
and third cervical vertebree are only anchylosed by one side of the 
neural arch, and free everywhere else. The breast-bone is irregular 
rhombic; in one specimen of M. longimana from Greenland it is 
pierced with a large central perforation ; in another adult specimen 
of the same species it is imperforate. 
