290 



LILLJEBORG ON THE 



[Additional Measurements, 1865. 

 Greatest width of skull across ossa zygomatica 

 Length of corpus of 1st dorsal vertebra 

 Width 



Length ,, 7th „ „ 



Width „ „ „ 



Length „ 14th (the last) dorsal vertebra 



Width 

 Length of processus transversi of ,, „ 



,, „ of 11th lumbosacral vertebra 



„ corpus of 3rd caudal vertebra 

 Width of 

 Length of processus spinosus of the 6th lumbosacral vertebra from the 



upper edge of foramen spinale 

 Length of the anterior extremity from caput ossis humeri inclusive 



5" 



81" 



5|" 

 10" 

 10" 

 61" 

 6i" 

 10" 



12" 

 10' 6"] 



It will be observed from these measurements that the length of the body is between three and 

 four times the length of the skull, and as the length of the skull is not quite Igrds its width, 

 which latter is considerable, it is evident that this whale has a larger head than the Balænopteræ. 

 The beak is l|ths or near twice the length of the posterior part of the skull ; and its length is 

 about l|ths its width at the base (according to Rudolphi's figure). It is quite wide, but the pro- 

 cessus zygomatici of the superior maxillaries, and the orbital parts of the frontal bones, project 

 considerably beyond the base of the beak, in consequence of the considerable width of the hinder 

 part of the skull. This very much resembles in other respects the skull of B. rostrafa, but 

 the orbital parts of the frontal bones are more tapering outwards, and their fore edges directed 

 somewhat more backwards, while their hinder edges are directed almost straight out towards the 

 sides.^ The lower jawbones are strongly curved, and the distance between their middle and the 

 upper jaw is consequently rather large. They are, when seen from the side, somewhat tapering 

 forward, but not very much. The processus coronoideus is low, but conspicuous. The atlas is 

 remarkable for its lateral processes being short, somewhat compressed, and directed obliquely 



^ Professor Nilsson has kindly furnished me with figures of the sub-fossil vrhale bones found at 

 Heljarp, near Landskrona (according to Ofversigten K. Wetensk. Akad. Eorh. 1860, p. 105). I have 

 also compared these bones with the above-described skeleton of the Megaptera boops, preserved in Lund,* 

 and procured by Professor Nilssou. There is only the hinder part of the skull. This, as well as 

 the atlas, corresponds so nearly in the form with the same parts of M. boops that there is no doubt 

 that they belong to the same species, or at least to the same genus. The lateral parts of the skull 

 project as much as in this, and denote a larger width of the skull than in Balænopfera musculus, and 

 the lateral parts of the occipital bone do not extend further back than the occipital condyles, which they 

 do in the latter ; and the atlas shows important deviations from that of Balænopfera, by haviug shorter 

 and higher lateral processes, and it is without tuberculum anticum. It is remarkable, however, that 

 in regard to the form of the foramen spinale, and the smaller size of the anterior articulating surfaces, it 

 seems to correspond nearer with G. Cuvier's figure of this bone of the Humpback whale of the Cape 

 than with the atlas of the skeleton in Lund. But the bones from Heljarp denote a small and yet 

 younger specimen than the skeleton in Lund, and such is also the case with the skeleton of the 

 Humpback whale from the Cape of Good Hope in the Paris Museum. 



