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Show 130 DR. J. E. GRAY ON NEW-ZEALAND WHALES. [J311, 21» British Museum, said to have come from South Africa, that it seemed that it might be a specimen of that species, showing that the species was common to the Cape of Good Hope and N e w Zealand. The examination, however, of the mass formed by the cervical vertebrae, and the form of the blade-bone, showed that it was most distinct from the New-Zealand and the Cape Whale; but it was soon apparent that the mass of cervical vertebrae very much resembled a similar specimen in the Australian Museum at Sydney, of which M r . Krefft had sent m e four photographs, which are copied in the ' Catalogue of Seals and Whales,' p. 105, figs. 10 & 11, and p. 372, figs. 74 & 75, and described under the name of Macleayius australiensis. The specimen now received chiefly differs from the photographs in the cervical vertebrae being much smaller but more complete, and in the lower processes of the second vertebra being longer and rather tapering at the end; but this m a y depend upon the age of the specimen, as the end of the process in this specimen is rugose, as if in progress of growth. I a m therefore inclined to consider it a specimen of the same species, or genus at least. The specimen photographed by M r . Krefft is much larger and probably much more adult than the one we have received from N ew Zealand, as shown below :- Krefft. Rrit. Mus. Width of atlas about 28 in. about 19 in. Width of lower process of 2nd vertebra „ 28| in. „ 19 in. Height from the base of the atlas to the top of crest.. „ 18 in. „ 15 in. The atlas vertebras of the Right Whales have a large crest over the vertebral marrow ; but their body is very thin, and becomes thinner on the lower edge, so that it does little more than line the cavity of the condyle. Their lateral processes are expanded; and this vertebra is most intimately united with the following, and has the appearance of forming part of it. The second vertebra is thicker, its upper lateral process is more or less intimately united with the back of the upper part of the process of the atlas, and the lower lateral processes are well developed. Care should be taken not to regard, as very often has been done, the two vertebrae as one, the lateral process of the atlas, the upper lateral process of the second vertebra united to it, and the inferior lateral process of this vertebra as all belonging to a single vertebra. These two vertebrae are quite distinct in younger specimens ; and there is always a large aperture upon each side of the neural areh, between the upper part of the lateral processes of the two passages of the nerves. According to Prof. Flower's figure of the section of the cervical vertebra of the Greenland Whale, in the ' Recent Memoirs on the Cetacea,' p. 149, the neural arches of the second to the sixth cervical vertebrae are all united together above, and quite separate from that of the seventh. In Macleayius the first, second, and third are much united together, but the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh are only |