130 DR. J.E. GRAY ON NEW ZEALAND WHALES. [Jail. 21, 



British Museum, said to have come from South Africa, that it seemed 

 that it might be a specimen of that species, showing that the species 

 was common to the Cape of Good Hope and New Zealand. The ex- 

 amination, however, of the mass formed by the cervical vertebrae, and 

 the form of the blade-bone, showed that it was most distinct from 

 the New-Zealand and the Cape Whale ; but it was soon apparent 

 that the mass of cervical vertebrae very much resembled a similar 

 specimen in the Australian Museum at Sydney, of which Mr. Krefft 

 had sent me four photographs, which are copied in the ' Cata- 

 logue of Seals and Whales,' p. 105, figs. 10 & 11, and p. 372, figs. 

 74 & 75, and described under the name of Macleayius australiensis. 

 The specimen now received chiefly differs from the photographs in 

 the cervical vertebrae being much smaller but more complete, and in 

 the lower processes of the second vertebra being longer and rather 

 tapering at the end ; but this may depend upon the age of the spe- 

 cimen, as the end of the process in this specimen is rugose, as if in 

 progress of growth. I am therefore inclined to consider it a speci- 

 men of the same species, or genus at least. 



The specimen photographed by Mr. Krefft is much larger and 

 probably much more adult than the one we have received from New 

 Zealand, as shown below : — 



Krefft. Brit. Mus. 



Width of atlas about 28 in. about 19 in. 



Width of lower process of 



2nd vertebra „ 28i in. „ 19 in. 



Height from the base of the 



atlas to the top of crest. . „ 18 in. „ 15 in. 



The atlas vertebra? of the Right Whales have a large crest over 

 the vertebral marrow ; but their body is very thin, and becomes 

 thinner on the lower edge, so that it does little more than line the 

 cavity of the condyle. Their lateral processes are expanded ; and 

 this vertebra is most intimately united with the following, and has 

 the appearance of forming part of it. The second vertebra is thicker, 

 its upper lateral process is more or less intimately united with the 

 back of the upper part of the process of the atlas, and the lower 

 lateral processes are well developed. Care should be taken not to 

 regard, as very often has been done, the two vertebrae as one, the 

 lateral process of the atlas, the upper lateral process of the second 

 vertebra united to it, and the inferior lateral process of this vertebra 

 as all belonging to a single vertebra. These two vertebrae are quite 

 distinct in younger specimens ; and there is always a large aperture 

 upou each side of the neural arch, between the upper part of the 

 lateral processes of the two passages of the nerves. 



According to Prof. Flower's figure of the section of the cervical 

 vertebra of the Greenland Whale, in the ' Recent Memoirs on the 

 Cetacea,' p. 149, the neural arches of the second to the sixth cervical 

 vertebrae are all united together above, and quite separate from that 

 of the seventh. In Macleayius the first, second, and third are much 

 united together, but the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh are only 



