178 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



type of the genus. The beak is rather robust, its greatest width being con- 

 tained about three times and a half in the length of the skull ; thence it de- 

 creases gradually forwards, the lateral contour .describing a sigmoid outline, 

 while the surface above towards the end is moderately and quite regularly 

 arched from side to side, no groove separating the intermaxillaries and supra- 

 maxillaries. The triangular or deltoid area, in front of the nostrils, is nearly 

 plane but elevated, and its surface corrugated ; it gradually ascends back- 

 wards to the posterior angles of the intermaxillaries, while forwards it is in- 

 curved, and continued as a narrow internal margin of the maxilliaries, almost 

 to the anterior fourth of the beak ; its greatest width is less than half the 

 width of the cranium. The interspace between the intermaxillaries is wide, 

 and scarcely contracted at the middle. The supraoccipital projects forwards, 

 and its point almost or quite touches the nasals. The temporal fossae project 

 far backwards. The lower jaw is nearly uniformly high for the posterior 

 fourth of its length, and at its symphisis is again enlarged and deeper. 



The teeth are elongated, boldly curved, in the upper jaw about thirty-two 

 in number ; all are directed obliquely forwards and outwards ; the distance 

 between the last and the posterior notch of the supramaxillary equalling the 

 width of the bone ; in the lower jaw there are about thirty or thirty-one 

 teeth on each side, directed somewhat outwards, and the posterior one also 

 slightly backwards. 



Three skulls of adults of this species, obtained at San Francisco, California, 

 are in the Smithsonian collection. They indicate a species different from any 

 that lias yet been intelligibly described. I refer it to Larjenorhynchus, as con- 

 tradistinguished from De.lphinus by its flat palate, destitute of lateral grooves ; 

 the differences between skulls of this genus and Cephalorhynchus are not evi- 

 dent from the published accounts. 



Phocaena vomerina, Gill. 



The skull is very similar to that of P. communis, and the proportions gene- 

 rally differ little or none, but it is at once distinguished by the development 

 of the vomerine bone, which is more developed and recurrent backwards, ex- 

 panding below into a more or less enlarged horizontal process behind the 

 palatines. The teeth appear also to be more numerous ; in the upper 

 jaw, on each side, there are about thirty-nine or forty teeth, disposed in two 

 divaricating series, in the front of which are about eighteen, and in the pos- 

 terior eleven. In other respects no decided specific differences seem to exist. 



This species is represented in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution 

 by the much injured skull of an animal obtained by Dr. Kennerly at Puget's 

 Sound, and by the skin and skull of a younger animal, procured at San Fran- 

 cisco by Dr. William Stimpson as naturalist of the North Pacific Exploring 

 Expedition. 



Note on a Species of HUNCHBACK WHALE. 

 BY PROF. E. D. COPE. 



The author has had an opportunity of studying the skeleton of a hunch- 

 backed whale of our coast, preserved in the museum at Niagara Falls, in 

 Canada. A label on the specimen explained that the animal was found dead 

 at'sea, forty miles from Petit Menan lighthouse, off the coast of Maine, and 

 was towed to shore by a Capt. Taylor. It was carefully cleaned, and appeared 

 to be perfect, except in the lack of the sternal, pelvic, and periotic elements. 

 Its length, when fresh, was fifty feet. 



It presents all the characters of the genus Megaptera, Gray, especially of 

 the northern species, including the lack of coracoid process, and presence of 

 a small coronoid process of the mandible. Its subordinate characters differ 



[Sept 



