VERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY. 491 



Whales of the Ziphiid Family. 



Believers in the existence of a "sea-serpent" have felt 

 themselves much supported in their belief by the discovery, 

 from time to time, of some gigantic species of cetacean previ- 

 ously unknown. The group of the order of Cetaceans which 

 has received the greatest number of additions is the family 

 of Ziphiids. Previous to the present century not a single 

 representative of the form had been recorded in scientific 

 literature. The typical genus was based, by Cuvier, on an 

 imperfect skull found in 1804 near Fos, Bouches-du-Rhone, 

 on the Mediterranean coast. By Cuvier the remains were 

 supposed to belong to an extinct type, for which he revived 

 a mediaeval name of uncertain application Ziphius. A short 

 time before, however (in 1804), Sowerby had described a liv- 

 ing example of the same family under the name of Physeter 

 biclens. Within the last ten years, the family has received 

 most notable additions, not only from the present seas, but 

 from tertiary strata. Professor Flower, who has done most 

 to elucidate the family, has lately published "A Further 

 Contribution to the Knowledge of the Existing Ziphioid 

 Whales," and has increased the number of 'species of the ge- 

 nus Mesoplodon to eight, two new species being added, based 

 on skeletons obtained from New Zealand. The Pacific, in 

 the neighborhood of New Zealand, seems, indeed, to be the 

 favorite abode of the recent Ziphiids. There they have been 

 found, not infrequently, in considerable "schools," while the 

 individuals found in other parts of the world have been sol- 

 itary, and specimens have been obtained generally at long in- 

 tervals. Too much importance must not, however, be put on 

 this apparent difference, as it may be the result of accident. 

 It is quite possible, nevertheless, that the family is dying out 

 in the Atlantic, and that the conditions for its existence, 

 whatever they may be, are most developed in the Australa- 

 sian waters. In tertiary times, representatives of the family 

 were numerous in species as well as individuals in Europe, 

 and co-existed with forms which are now almost or wholly 

 extinct in the European seas, but which still flourish in the 

 Australian. 



Apropos to the question of the reality of sea-serpents, too 

 much weight should not be attached to the discovery of new 



