1 86 A BOOK OP WHALES 



length. Dorsal fin falcate ; form delphinoid. Cervi- 

 cal vertebrae ankylosed. Jugal not joining squamosal. 

 Snout short. Blow hole at forehead. 



This genus of " Pygmy Sperm whales " comprises 

 a number of varieties from very various parts of the 

 world, which have been much divided up into species 

 and even genera. Allowing for the present that there 

 is but one genus, a conclusion which it will be at- 

 tempted to justify later, we may begin by contrast- 

 ing it with the giant Sperm whale Physeter. 



As to outward form the present whale has a del- 

 phinoid aspect, produced by the small head and the 

 backwardly situated blow hole, the well-developed and 

 falcate dorsal fin, and the small size. A peculiarity 

 of the genus, more strongly marked than in its ally 

 Pkyseter, is the inferior position of the mouth. This 

 gives to the creature, as seen in the figure of Owen,* 

 a curiously shark - like aspect. Some little time 

 since a marine monster was stranded on the Welsh 

 coast, and the newspapers reported that it was un- 

 decided by the local zoologists, or their own reporter, 

 whether the beast was a shark or a whale. In spite 

 of the superficial resemblance which the ventral 

 mouth of a Kogia \ gives it to a whale, it would be 

 probably only a newspaper reporter who would be 

 in doubt on the matter. 



* Trans. Zool. Soc., vi. 



t Kogia or Cogia, as it is variously spelt, is a " barbarous " word, said 

 to be a Latinised form of "codger" ! But it might be a tribute to a 

 Turk of the past surnamed Cogia Effendi, who observed whales in the 

 Mediterranean ! 



