ANOMALOUS DOLPHINS 



295 



remarkable feature in the skull, not even excepting 

 the extraordinary maxillary crests, is the condition 

 of the palatines. These do not enter into the 

 formation of the bony palate, but are concealed by 

 the pterygoids. 



FIG. 40. Skull of Platanista, lateral view. 

 (After van Beneden and Gervais.) 



m, Maxillary crest. 



Platanista gangetica, the species named by Lebeck,* 

 the "long-snouted Dolphin of the Ganges," is limited 

 to that river and to its branches, and to the Indus and 

 its branches. It appears never to leave the streams 

 for the sea. Its food is chiefly fish and prawns, and 

 it is believed largely to grub about in the river mud 

 to obtain its food. The diminutive eyes render 

 pursuit of an active prey at least difficult, but the 

 whale makes up for these defective organs of vision, 



-...:' 



* ' Gcsellsch. Nat-Freunde, Berlin, 1801, p. 28b. ; The fullest account 

 of the anatomy of this whale is by Dr. Anderson in 'Anatomical and- 

 Zoological Researches . . . Yunnan, 1878, p. 417, 'with many plates of 

 both skeleton and " soft parts." 



