1S()7.] 



DR. H. burmeisti!;r on a new finner whale. 



711 



life of the animal ; the same circumstance may have also united the 

 first and second dorsal vertebrae, which are also anchylosed to each 

 other at some points of the arch and the upper part of the body. 

 As the animal is a very old one, having no epiphyses separated in the 

 whole skeleton, I must believe that it was wounded when young on 

 the left side of the neck, perhaps by the harpoon of a whaler. 



The eleven dorsal vertebrae have the usual form, and increase in 

 size from before backwards rapidly, the body of the first vertebra 

 being only I^ inch, and the eleventh 5^ inches ; they have all long 

 lateral processes, to an excavation on the hinder edge of which are 

 attached the ribs. 



The spinous processes increase gradually in height to the middle 

 of the lumbar portion of the vertebral column. 



There are eleven pairs of ribs. The first is broader than the others 

 and 2 feet long. The longest is 4 feet in a straight line, and in the 

 middle of the series. The first pair is attached to the sternum, which 

 has a very peculiar form. It is (fig. 3) like a cross, resembling the 



Fig. 3. 



Sternum of 7?. honaijrcims. 



same bone of the European species ; but the upper, short branch of 

 the cross is, unlike that of B. rostrata, divided into two large parallel 

 lobes. No bone proves more convincingly the distinctness of the 



