122 BAL^NOPTERIDJS. 



Sternum rhombic, without any central perforation. The tympanic 

 bone is oblong, ventricose, smooth, very solid, with a rough depres- 

 sion on the convex outer side. It is very like that of the genus 

 Physalus, but shorter, more ventricose, and more solid. 



Fig. 18. 



Top of the first and second ribs of Megapten'a longimana. 



Var. 2. MooEEi. The second and third cervical vertebrae very 

 thin, anchylosed together by the body and neural arch. The body 

 of the cervical vertebrae oblong, transverse, much wider than high. 

 The neural arch rather slender, with a subcircular oblong cavity, 

 which is fuUy two-thirds as high as wide. 



Inhab. Estuary of the Dee (1863, Thos. Moore). Skeleton in the 

 Free Museum, Liverpool ; a young female 31 feet long. 



The atlas is very thick ; the second cervical nearly as thick as 

 the atlas, with the upper and lower lateral processes separate, short ; 

 the fifth, sixth, and seventh cervicals aU similar to the third and 

 fourth ; the fifth thin, and the seventh the thickest. The second 

 cervical vertebra has two short broad thick processes, with a rounded 

 interrupted perforation between them ; the third and fourth have a 

 thin long shelving-down upper, and a short straight lower process ; 

 the fifth, sixth, and seventh are similar, but have only an upper lateral 

 process ; the fifth is the thinnest, and the seventh the thickest. The 

 arms were 10 feet long ; the cartilage between the bones of the arms 

 and the fingers is nearly half as long as the arm-bones ; there are 

 four bones immersed in it, small, variously shaped and sized ; the 

 cartilage between the elongated finger-bones is nearly half as long as 

 the phalanges ; the phalanges nearly all of the same oblong shape, 

 and subsymmetrical in form. The bones of the skull are so fragile 

 as scarcely to bear their own weight. 



Moore, in the lithographic ' Naturalist's Scrap-Book ' (printed in 

 Liverpool) for July 17, 1863, observes, " It yielded no oU ; the blub- 

 ber was like a cow's udder, as exposed in the market for sale in 

 Liverpool. Length 31 feet 4 inches. Bought by a manufacturer of 

 oil and grease, who made nothing of it." "All black; belly mot- 

 tled and streaked with white ; pectoral fins milk-white, with a black 



