214 DR. J. E. GRAY ON BRITISH CETACEA. [May 24, 
The breast-bone broad above, with an arched upper edge, narrow 
and rather produced below, with concave sides, and without an 
central perforation. The front (first, second, and third) ribs thin, 
compressed, dilated at the end ; the first with a short, broad, rounded, 
the second with a larger, slender, produced process on the inner side. 
Fig. 8. 
First and Second Rib of Benedenia knoxii. 
This Whale has also probably been caught on the coast of France 
and Spain. M. Van Beneden, having met with skeletons of whales, 
one at Bayonne and the other at Abbeville, which he considered the 
young of Physalus antiquorum, observes that, in both, the two apo- 
physes of the axis were not yet united; the ribs, he observes, are 
wanting (Nouv. Mém. Acad. Roy. Bruxelles, xxii. 37)*. 
I am aware that Eschricht and Reinhardt (Essay on the Northern 
Whale) seem to doubt the distinctness of this species. Unfortu- 
nately I do not understand Danish sufficiently to quite make out 
what is their objection; but I feel that, excellent as is their essay 
on the animal which they describe, some part of their argument would 
be much modified if they had been able to examine a larger col- 
lection of skeletons from different localities, and if they could have 
examined those in other museums and from other localities more in 
detail ; but unfortunately they give their opinions on specimens which 
they have not seen, and, like many other Continental naturalists, 
without making sufficient allowance for the very large extent of the 
collection in England, or considering that the species here described 
are not separated until after careful consideration and comparison. 
There is unfortunately an inclination in most of the Continental 
naturalists to believe that all the species they do not possess are the 
same as, or only slight variations of, those they have—an idea that is 
a fertile source of confusion and error in reasoning. 
* Perhaps, if he had examined the cervical bones separately, he would have 
observed that the perforation was situated in a different part of the lateral pro- 
cesses, and was of a different form from that of Physalus antiquorum. 
