312 MB. W. H. FLOWER ON THE OSTEOLOGY OF THE SPERM-WHALE. 



pairs of ribs, the first ten fully developed, the eleventh rudimentary. The chevron bones 

 are ten in number; but the articular surfaces on the vertebrse 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 vertebrae 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 vertebrse, the 

 hyoid bones, the pelvic bones, and many of the phalanges are missing. The vertebral 

 formula is C. 7. D. 11. L. 8. C. 21 + '? The length of the column, the bones being 

 placed close together, is 28' 7"; the cranium is about 17' 9" (the ends of the prsemaxillae 

 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, 13J" and 12|" 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 vertebrse 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 paiis of ribs are present ; but the vertebra which I have reckoned as the 



