8 



W. LlLLJEBOEG, 



142) and also according to what Flower has shown in the above cited 

 work, is without question a very young Physalus antiquorum (muscuhis), 

 or at least a species of the same genus. The description given by G. O. 

 Saks, in his above mentioned paper, of the young Physalus antiquorum 

 taken at Lofoten in Norway, exhibits the closest agreement with the Bene- 

 denia in the form of the cervical vertebrae. The upper end of the first rib 

 shows some difference in form, the capitular process being somewhat more 

 extended in the Benedenia. The lesser inflected and in front more tapering 

 form, displayed by the under jaw of the Benedenia, is evidently a result 

 of its imperfectly developed state. We are moreover of opinion that the 

 Cuvierius Sibbaldii Gray, or Physalus latirostris Flower belongs to the genus 

 Physalus, as it corresponds with that genus in the large number of its ver- 

 tebrae and ribs, and offers no other differences of form, than that the snout 

 of the cranium, the nasal-bones, and lower jaAv-bones are broader than those 

 of the Physalus antiquorum. According to this view Europe's Fauna has 

 only 3 species of the genus Physalus, viz. Phys. antiquorum Gray, Ph. 

 Duguidii Gray, and Ph. Sibbaldii Gray, of which however the second cannot 

 as yet be considered as fully established, its claim resting on the form of 

 the cervical vertebrae, which is subject to considerable modifications during 

 the growth of the animal. The Balaenoptera Carolinae shortly noticed by 

 A. Malm 1 ) is a Physalus, which, though 55' long, is as yet but imperfectly 

 developed , and the skeleton of which in every particular, e. g. in the imper- 

 fect lateral processes of the cervical vertebrae, in the slender form of all 

 the bones (even the phalanges) and in the loose junction of the epiphyses 

 with their respective bones, clearly indicates a young individual. According 

 to the, it must be owned, somewhat imperfect examination we were en- 

 abled to make of it during its exhibition last summer in Stockholm , we 

 look upon it as a young Physalus antiquorum Gray or Balaenoptera mus- 

 cidus L. Companyo. It has indeed one caudal vertebra more (26) than is 

 usually the case, accordingly 63 vertebrae in all, but that number is given 

 by Eschricht and Reinhardt for a Balaenoptera muscidus in their work on 

 the Northern Whale 2 ), probably from a young specimen from Greenland, 

 preserved in the Anatomical Museum at Copenhagen. With that specimen 

 the Bal. Carolinae also closely agrees in the form of the sternum. That 

 bone however in the Phys. antiquorum, as also in the Megaptera hoops and 



') Nagra blad om Hvaldjur i allinanbet och Balaenoptera Carolinae isynnerhet. 

 Goteborg. 1866. 

 2 ) p. 549. 



