146 



BAIJENOPTERIDiE. 



and united into rings. This is the case in the skeleton in the British 

 Museum, and in that, from the Thames, in Kosherville Gardens. But 

 this is subject to some variation : in the specimen from Plymouth, 

 prepared by Messrs. Gerrard, now in Alexandra Park, the lower 

 processes of the sixth and seventh cervical vertebrae are abortive — in 

 the sixth they axe reduced to smaU tubercles, and are entirely 

 wanting ia the seventh. 



Fig. 30. 



Second cervical vertebra of Physalm antiquorum, from Devonshire, 



Extreme width 43 inches ; height I35 inches. 

 Width of articular surface 10 inches ; height 8 inches. 



Fig. 31. 



Fifth cervical vertebra of Physalus antiquorum, from Devonshire. 



Extreme width .35i inches ; height IO5 inches. 

 Width of articular surface 12 inches ; height 7g inches. 



The different English skeletons of this whale which I have ex- 

 amined and which are adult, or at least nearly of the same size (that 

 is, from 70 to 80 feet long), exhibit considerable variation in the form 

 and in the size of the perforation, and in the development of the 

 rings of the lateral processes of the hinder cervical vertebrae, showing 

 that there are several species, or, what is more probable, that their 

 bones are liable to a considerable amount of variation. 



The British Museum specimen was found floating on the sea in a 



