234 A BOOK OF WHALES 



the genus that can be certainly recognised. The 

 following names, however, have been also given : 



Z. chathamiensis, Hector; Z. nova zelandiez, Haast ; 

 Z. indie us, van Beneden ; Z. australis, Burmeister ; 

 Petrorkynchus capensis, Gray ; Z. grebnitzkii, Stej- 

 neger ; Hyperoodon semijunctus, Cope ; H. doumelii, 

 Gray ; H. gervaisii, Duvernoy ; Delpkinus desma- 

 restii, Risso ; D. plulippii, Cocco ; Zipkiorhynchus 

 cryptodon, Burmeister; and apparently some others. 



The above formidable list of synonyms is mainly 

 after van Beneden. Considering that the species has 

 been only known from the year 1804, the synonyms 

 have multiplied with perhaps greater rapidity and to a 

 greater extent than those of almost any whale. It 

 was in the year mentioned that a skull "completely 

 petrified in appearance " was picked up upon the 

 Mediterranean coast of France, and regarded properly 

 as the type of a new form, but incorrectly as a species 

 now extinct. Forty-six years later, i.e., in 1850, a 

 second skull was found, also on the Mediterranean 

 shore. Since then Ziphius cavirostris has been found 

 in many and the most distant parts of the world. 



The size of this whale varies much according to the 

 measurements given. These naturally are from indi- 

 viduals of different ages. Van Beneden remarks that 



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its size is a little inferior to that of Hyperoodon. It is 

 also to be distinguished from that northern whale by 

 the larger size of the two teeth. The grooves on the 



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throat are possibly a character by which differences 

 may be ultimately detected between specimens of 



