PSEUDORCA CRASSIDENS. 207 



the Grampus grisens resemble each other or not in their cervical vertebræ, so long as we, with 

 respect to the latter, have only Cuvier's description to go by, which as to this point is quite 

 insufBcient. To judge by his words, we may, perhaps, surmise that his dolphin agrees with ours, 

 at all events, insomuch that all seven cervical vertebræ grow together into one solid osseous 

 mass ; for his words are : " dans le grisens, les cervicales se soudent aussi promptement que dans 

 le dauphin ;"^ but, at the same time, it must not be overlooked that he expresses himself in much 

 the same manner about his Belphinus globiceps, generally considered as identical with the 

 Delphinus melas of Traill, although, in this instance, the seventh cervical vertebra (at any rate 

 according to my experience) remains separate throughout life." 



The body of the first dorsal vertebra is scarcely longer than that of the seventh cervical 

 vertebra, but that of the second dorsal has already almost double the length, and the succeeding 

 vertebræ uniformly increase in length. The distinction between two different elements in the 

 anterior of the processes known by the name of processus ohliqni, or articulares, in the dorsal 

 and lumbar vertebræ, namely, partly the real articular process, partly the wartlike process — 

 processus mammillaris as it is called, placed outside the former, a distinction which of late has been 

 pointed out, especially by A. Retzius, must to a certain degree be acknowledged as justi- 

 fiable in our dolphin, as in the Cetaceans generally ; mammillary processes may, properly speaking, 

 be distinguished already in the second dorsal, and even in the seventh we may still, though with 

 difficulty, discern both one of these and an articular process placed inside it. But from thence 

 these two sorts of processes are united in one, and as the mammillary processes are not particularly 

 prominent, even where they are largest, but may very well be regarded as parts of the articular 

 process, I prefer to take no further notice here of the distinction made by Retzius, and accordingly 

 to use the denomination of processus obliqui, or articulares, in their earlier, and more common 



'Rech. s. 1. Oss. Foss.,' 1. c, p. 147. As to the comparison used hy Cuvier in this place, T may, 

 perhaps, be permitted to observe, that while he assumes all seven cervical vertebræ to be ankylosed in the 

 Belphinus delphis (1. c, p. 140), it is stated by Eapp (' die Cetaceen,' p. 62) that only the two foremost 

 are ankylosed in this species. Dr. Jackson finally, who in ' Boston Journal of Nat. Hist.,' 1845, has 

 described a dolphin from the coast of North America, which, according to his supposition and that of 

 Gray, may, perhaps, be referred to Delphinus delphis, is (according to Gray's citation of the origmal 

 essay, inaccessible to me) said to have " the first and second cervical scarcely moveable upon each other ; 

 and the other five smaller and rather more moveable" (Gray, ' Catal. of Cetacea,' p. 122). I must 

 leave it undecided how far the discrepancies of these statements are caused by difi'erent species or in- 

 dividuals of different age having formed the objects of the different researches, or by what other 

 manner they are to be explained. I shall only remark that, whether Jackson's seven feet long dolphin 

 was the genuine D. delphis or not, his statement about a mobility, be it ever so slight, between 

 the axis and the atlas, may, perhaps, be considered doubtful. Even in such forms as have only these 

 two vertebræ ankylosed, but the rest of the cervical vertebræ free as D. tursio, the bodies of the two 

 first-mentioned vertebræ are so completely ankylosed, that we cannot even point out any limits between 

 them, and by examining foetuses of Phocæna communis, it will be seen that the coalescence is already 

 to be found in these. We shall hardly in any dolphins find a mobility between the atlas and the 

 axis, except in those few cases in which all the cervical vertebræ remain free throughout life ; and such is 

 only the case with forms that are generically widely different from the group to which Delphinvs 

 delphis belongs, namely, with the narwhal, the beluga, and the platanista. 



^ 1. c, p. 146. " Dans le globiceps les cervicales se soudent assez vite." 



