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Show 1867.] DR. H. BURMEISTER ON A NEW FINNER WHALE. 709 of the hinder end. The remaining part is composed of 192 plates; and from the form of the last it m a y be supposed that a series of 30 or 40 plates is lost on the hinder end, so that the whole series of plates may have been from 230 to 235. The first plates are very small, not higher than 3 inches, of which 2 inches are long bristles ; but the hinder plates are 12 inches high without the bristles, and the bristles here are more than 3 inches long. These hinder plates have a base 7 inches broad and an elongated triangular figure, the side with the bristles being the largest, like the hypotheuuse of the triangle, and somewhat curved to the exterior. It is well known by the description of different authors* that there are three or even four series of plates in the internal basal margin of the larger external series. In m y specimen the second series of plates is preserved, but the two or three smaller most internal series are lost. The plates of this second series are of the same triangular figure, but no higher than | to 3 inches, with short bristles of \ inch on the inside. All these interior plates are of a white colour in m y specimen; and of the same colour is also the whole inside of the large external series, every plate of that series being black on the outer margin for a space of 2 inches. The neck is composed in the usual manner of seven small vertebra?, of which the second, third, and fourth are united together by the bodies and by ossified commissures on the central portion of the arch. The first or atlas (fig. 1, anterior surface) is m u c h broader Fig. 1. Anterior surface of atlas of B. bonaercnsis. than high, the horizontal diameter between the transverse processes being 15f inches, and the perpendicular in the middle only 9£". Projecting these diameters in lines, the transverse diameter is situate somewhat above the middle of the perpendicular. The articular surfaces for the occipital condyles are together 7\ inches broad and each 5" high. The three following united vertebrae are figured in fig. 2 from * I find a very correct description of the whalebones of the European species bv Ravin in the ' Annal. des Sciences Naturelles,' 2e ser. Zool. t. v. p. 266, pl. 11. |
