710 DR. H. BURMEISTER ON A NEW FINNER WHALE. [Juiie 27, 



behind. Each one has a large transverse process, which is perfo- 

 rated in the middle by a great elliptical opening. In the very strong 

 second vertebra this opening is the smallest, and the horizontal dia- 

 meter of the opening shorter (4| inches) than the outer end of the 

 transverse process (5j inches) ; but in the two others the opening 

 occupies nearly the whole process, surrounded only by a small osse- 

 ous ring. The upper part, including the vertebral canal, is broader 



Fig. 2. 



Spcond, fliird, and Iburlli vcrtebiw of B. //imiii'reiis/.<. 



than high ; and this canal is of a depressed triangular figure. The 

 arch is very strong and thick on the second vertebrae, and, in each 

 of the three, armed with three small upright spines, of which the 

 middle is the processus spinosus. The fifth vertebra of the neck 

 has quite the same form ; its lateral process is a closed osseous ring ; 

 but the sixth differs by being open in the middle of the under part 

 of this ring, near the enlarged point, and the seventh by having no 

 under part to the ring, but only the upper half circumference with 

 the enlarged point at the end. 



In most of these characters the species differs from the European 

 B. rostrata, as this has only in some cases the second and third cer- 

 vical vertebrae united, and open rings on all, after the second, of 

 which open ring the upper part is smaller than the under, and not 

 provided with the enlarged point at the end, which is present in all 

 the cervical vertebrse alter the second of my new species. 



The small erect spines on the vertebral arch are also wanting in 

 the European species, and the lateral processes are much shorter in 

 comparison with the transverse diameter of the bodies of the verte- 

 brae. As an individual character of my specimen I must remark 

 that the upper parts of the lateral processes of the sixth and seventh 

 cervical vertebrae are united together on the left side in their whole 

 extent, which seems to me a consequence of disease during the 



