234 Sheppard: Notes on the Skeleton of SibbalcPs Rorqual. 



description of the distinctive characters of the Hull skeleton 

 is as follows : — ' The transverse apophyses of the second 

 cervical vertebra rather elongated, united, leaving- only a small 

 subcentral hole ; of the other cervical vetebras slender, shorter 

 and far apart, nearly straight, directed out laterally.' He then 

 points out that the Hull specimen ' has 64 vertebra?, as follows : 

 cervical, 7; thoracic, 16; lumbar and caudal, 41 ; and the arms 

 and paddles are 6 feet 9 inches long; the ribs 16 pair, all simple. 

 The baleen is black.' 



In 1864 the same author read a paper of 54 pages to the 

 Zoological Society ' On the Cetacea which have been observed 

 in the Seas surrounding the British Islands.' It is here pointed 

 out that the second cervical vertebra of the Hull skeleton ' has 



a broad lateral expansion, and is oblong, obliquely truncated 

 from the wide upper to the narrow lower edge, and with a small 

 oblong subcentral perforation near the base ; the third, fourth, 

 fifth, sixth, and seventh cervical vertebra? have a straight, 

 rather elongate lateral process, which projects straight out from 

 the body of the vertebra, and the upper and lower ones are of 

 nearly equal length. The end of the first rib, near the vertebra, 

 has a single head; and the second rib has a compressed internal 

 process.' 



Early in 1865, Professor W. H. Flower, F.R.S. (who-, just 

 prior to his recent death, had done so much in exhibiting the 

 specimens in the new Whale Room connected with the British 

 Museum), visited Hull, and on 13th June of the same year 



Naturalist, 



