710 ALLTS. [VoL. XII. 
rests directly upon the thin, dorsal edge of the anterior portion 
of the basioccipital. Through this thin portion, and hence in 
front of the thickened base of the bone, there is, as Sagemehl 
states, a foramen (ofr?) giving passage to the ventral root of a 
spinal-like occipital nerve; the foramen is, however, strictly on 
the lateral face of the bone instead of on its dorsal surface, as 
his figure shows. In front of this foramen, slightly above it, 
and about halfway between it and the vagus foramen, there was, 
in all the specimens I examined, another very small foramen 
(ofr') giving passage to another similar but very delicate ventral 
root. Between these two foramen there is no thickening of the 
bone, but opposite the space between them, on the median edge 
of the bone, directly above the foramen magnum, there is a con- 
siderable thickening. Along the lateral surface of the basi- 
occipital, starting from the exit foramen of the spinal artery 
already described, there is a slight depression or groove which 
continues upward and forward onto the occipitale laterale, across 
the posterior occipital foramen, and then onto the dorsal sur- 
face of the bone. It apparently marks the course of the spinal 
artery, and is apparently the line shown by Sagemehl in his 
Fig. 3, and considered by him as of segmental value. 
The first vertebra (V‘) is, as Sagemehl states, slightly 
convex in front and strongly concave behind. It is thinner 
longitudinally than the second vertebra, the second is thinner 
than the third, and the third thinner than the fourth. The 
progression is regular, and there is no reason whatever, from 
their dimensions alone, to consider the two first vertebrae as 
half vertebrae (Schmidt, No.110). The first six vertebrae, the 
only ones that were examined, had each, on each side, a dorsal 
and a ventral cartilaginous process (ap and vf), and all except- 
ing the first had also a lateral, bony process (/p) directed down- 
ward, outward, and backward, tipped with cartilage, and giving 
articulation to a rib. Schmidt (No. 110, Fig. 2) shows the first 
lateral process and the first rib on the third vertebrae. I 
have always found them on the second. Arising from the 
lateral surface of the first vertebra, exactly in line with the 
lateral processes and ribs of the other vertebrae, there is 
always a small ligament (/vZ), similar to and in line with those 

