312 MR. W. H. FLOWER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE SPERM-WHALE. 
pairs of ribs, the first ten fully developed, the eleventh rudimentary. T he chevron bones 
are ten in number; but the articular surfaces on the vertebrae show that at least four 
are wanting. ‘The teeth are complete, and very little worn. 
2. The animal from which the next specimen was prepared was washed ashore in a 
much decomposed state, in July 1863, near Thurso, in the county of Caithness. 
The skeleton was presented by Captain Macdonald, upon whose property it was 
stranded, to the British Museum; and I am indebted to the kindness of the Keeper 
of the Zoological Department of that institution, Dr. Gray, for the opportunity of 
making a close examination of it while undergoing the process of preparation 
necessary to fit it for exhibition. This was also a male. The condition of the bones 
shows it to be quite aged: the epiphyses of all the vertebre are firmly united to the 
bodies, and so is the head of the humerus to the shaft; the teeth are very much worn 
down. The skeleton is unfortunately far from being perfect. The cranium has been 
much injured, most of the teeth lost; several of the posterior caudal vertebre, the 
hyoid bones, the pelvic bones, and many of the phalanges are missing. ‘The vertebral 
formula isC. 7. D.11. L.8. ©. 2142 The length of the column, the bones being 
placed close together, is 28’ 7”; the cranium is about 17’ 9” (the ends of the premaxille 
being broken, it cannot be measured exactly); so that, allowing for the terminal caudal 
vertebrae, the skeleton may be estimated at 47’ without the intervertebral spaces, or 
rather more than 50’ with them. ‘The ribs, as in the former specimen, are ten well- 
developed pairs, and one rudimentary pair—that is, 13}” and 123” long respectively, and 
nearly straight, having, apparently, been attached to the ends of the transverse pro- 
cesses of the eleventh dorsal vertebra. There are twelve chevron bones, the first anky- 
losed to its corresponding vertebra. I shall speak of this as the Caithness skeleton. 
3. The Yorkshire skeleton, as it may be conveniently termed, was prepared from an 
animal stranded in 1825, at Tunstall, in the Holderness, and which fortunately, while 
still entire, came under the. observation of Dr. Alderson, then residing in Hull, who has 
given a figure and description of its external characters, with some anatomical notes, in 
the ‘Cambridge Philosophical Transactions’ for the same year. No less fortunately for 
science, Sir Clifford Constable, Bart., in his capacity of “ Lord Paramount of the 
Seigniories of Holderness,” claimed the body of the animal, and had the skeleton 
prepared and mounted in his park at Burton Constable. With his kind permission 
I had the opportunity in June 1866 of making a careful examination, with measure- 
ments and drawings, of this specimen. Like the last, it is a perfectly adult male: the 
epiphyses of all the bodies of the vertebra are united, only slight traces of the original 
separation still remaining in the anterior lumbar region; and there is only a slight 
indication of the original epiphysial condition of the head of the humerus. ‘The 
vertebral formula is C.7. D.11. L. 8. C.23=49. The total length of the skeleton 
is 48’ 4”, the vertebral bodies being placed close together; of this, the head occupies 
18°11”. ‘Ten pairs of ribs are present; but the vertebra which I have reckoned as the 
