5:2 REPORT ON ZOOLOGY, MDCCCXLIII. 



CETACEA. 



An almost perfect skeleton of Zeuylodon, Ow. (Basilo- 

 saurus, Harl.) has been found in Alabama. (Sillim. Amer. 

 Joum. xliv, p. 409.) 



In a marly calcareous earth, a few feet below the surface, lay this skeleton 

 of the Zeufflodon (erroneously written Zygodon), and in such a position that 

 the whole vertebral column, from the head to the end of the tail, presented 

 itself in an almost unbroken series ; the entire length, including the skull, 

 amounted to 70 feet. The mammalian character of this genus has been 

 demonstrated by Owen, in the ' Transact, of the Geol. Society,' 1841, p. 69. 



A new extinct genus has been named by Brandt Ceto- 

 therium. (Bullet, de la Classe Physico-Math. de St. Peters- 

 bourg, i, p. 145 ; Instit. 1843, pp. 241-270.) 



Allied to Baltenoptera, though generically differing from it. To this 

 belongs the fragment of a cranium from Kertsch, described by Rathke, and 

 also other bones, upon which Brandt has founded his C. RatJikii. He 

 regards Eichwald's Ziphius prisons as, at present, a doubtful species of tin's 

 genus. 



I need not here refer to the comprehensive and important researches of 

 Eschricht on the northern Cetacea, which have now been also communicated 

 in the ' Isis/ 1843, p. 276 ; Dieffenbach's observations on the southern 

 Whales, made in his travels in New Zealand, are also worthy of attention. 



In contradiction to SchlegePs opinion, who admits of only two species of 

 Fin-fish, Joh. Midler has asserted in his ' Arch, fur Auat.' 1842, s. ccxxxviii, 

 that Balcenoptera mmculns is a perfectly distinct species, with which also 

 corresponds the Fin-fish from Bergen, described by Kroyer and Eschricht. 



Highly accurate and comprehensive researches on the optic nerves of the 

 Dolphin have been made by Stannius. (Ib. p. 378). 



Remarks on a Hyperoodon, stranded on the English coast, have been 

 communicated by Bellingham (Ann. Nat. Hist, xi, p. 41 4) ; a short notice 

 on a Phocana rissoana, captured near Marseilles, is given in the 'Isis,' 1843, 

 p. 414. The right half of the stomach of the Hype-roodon presents, as stated by 

 Eudes-Deslongchamps, 7 to 8 divisions, which are separated by duplicatures 

 of the mucous membrane. (Mem. de la Soc. Linn, de Normandie, 1842, 

 find thence in Midler's Archiv. 1843, s. cclx.) 



