8. BALiENOFXEKA. 187 



convex on the upper surface in both directions (fig. 13,/, p. 111). 

 Eami of lower jaw much curved, and with a high pointed coronoid 

 process. Cervical vertebrae usually separate ; but this family character 

 not unfrequently departed from by the union of the second and third, 

 or the third and fourth, by their arches. Keural arches high ; spines 

 moderately developed. Transverse process of atlas arising from the 

 middle of the body, elongated, tapering, directed outwards and slightly 

 upwards. Upper and lower transverse processes of axis and succeed- 

 ing vertebrae, to the sixth inclusive, well developed. Those of the 

 axis broad, flat, and in the adult united at their extremity ; those of 

 the other vertebrae slender, and never imited at their extremity, 

 except occasionally in the sixth and more rarely in the fifth vertebra. 

 Head of the first rib simple ; capitular processes scarcely developed 

 upon any of the ribs. Sternum longer than broad, having the form of 

 an elongated cross (fig. 12, c, ip.llO)."— Flower, P.Z. S. 1864, 394. 



The lateral processes of the cervical vertebrae are generally free 

 and tapering at the tip ; but some of them are sometimes united, 

 forming a ring. Eschricht described those of the fifth and sixth 

 vertebrae as sometimes united. In the specimen in the Eoyal College 

 of Surgeons the lateral processes of the sixth cervical vertebra are 

 united on one side and free on the other. 



In aU these cases the form of the processes is not altered ; the 

 end is only elongated and united. The cervical vertebrae are some- 

 times quite free, as is the case with Hunter's specimen in the Museum 

 of the Eoyal College of Surgeons. The second and third vertebrae 

 are often united by more or less of the surface of the neural arches ; 

 and this seems to be the normal state. In the specimens from Cro- 

 mer, lately acquired by the Royal College of Surgeons, the third and 

 fourth cervical vertebrae are united by the neural arches, and the 

 second and third free. 



The elongated processes on the end of the front ribs have two 

 muscles attached to them, one arising from each of the two neigh- 

 bouring vertebrae. Eschricht, in his essay above cited, figured a 

 foetus and a new-bom specimen, which was 34 inches long, and gave 

 the anatomy of it, with details of its skeleton (see Eschr. K. D. Vid. 

 Selsk. 1846, fig. p. 309). They have a single series of bristles 

 parallel with the lips (see K. Dansk. Vid. Selsk. xi. 1. 1 & 2). 



Tympanic bones oblong, swollen, rounded above and below and 

 at each end. They are figured in situ in the skull by Eschricht 

 in the 'Danish Transactions,' vol. xii. t. 11. f. 2 ^f in the foetus, t. 9. 

 f. 2 & 4gr, & t. 10. f. 25r, in the more adult state. 



In the ' Royal Danish Transactions ' for 1846, Eschricht gives a 

 detailed comparison of the bones of the head of a foetal specimen 

 (one 6|- feet) and one 34 feet long (see t. 9-11), and the detaUs of 

 the skeleton of a foetus 9 inches long (t. 14). The form of the cer- 

 vical and other vertebrae of the skeleton seems to be nearly identical 

 with that of those of the adult animal. The lateral processes of 

 the second cervical process, for example, are united into a broad 

 expanded blade, with a perforation near the body of the vertebra, 

 which is so characteristic of the genus. 



