NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 279 



The White Whale of the St. Lawrence, Delphinus canadensis of Des- 

 marest, figured roughly after Duhamel, by Gray, (Zool. Erebus and Terror,) 

 and recently described by Prof. Jeffries Wyman in the Proc. Bost. Society 

 Nat. History, is distinct from the preceding species. In all of them there is 

 a strong postero-inferior medial process of the atlas, not seen in Dr. Wyman's 

 figures, and in none is the odontoid process prolonged or elevated ; his 

 figure represents a deeper (thicker) axis, and'more elevated atlas than any of 

 the preceding possess. The rudimental dorsal fin and auricular meatus do 

 not exist in the true c a to don, (syn. B. albicans,) carefully described by 

 Barclay and Neill in the Wernerian Transactions, 1817, (the former repre- 

 sented by a ridge only;) nor do Pallas and others allude to a dorsal fin, as 

 observed by Dr" Wyman. The complete vertebral canal of the third cervical 

 vertebra is, perhaps, also a character. In a specimen ten feet in length, the 

 seven cervicals measured seven inches, which is the length given for those of 

 a catodon of fourteen feet. 



The Beluga canadensis must be included in the fauna of the United 

 States, though not included in the published New York or Massachusetts fauna?. 

 Josselyn states, page 105 of "An account of two voyages to New England, 

 (1673,)" "The sea hare is as big as a grampus or herring-hog, and as white as 

 a sheet. There hath been some of them at Black Point Harbour, Maine, and 

 some way up the river, but we could never take any of them ; several shot slugs 

 at them, but lost their labour." Verrill, in his Catalogue of the Mammals, 

 observed at Anticosti in the summer of 1861,* does not enumerate this spe- 

 cies. He notes two species of Megaptera, which is probably the first record 

 of the Megaptera osphyia, (Proc. Acad., 1865, 178.) 



Phocsena' brachycium. 



Two specimens (Nos. 105-6) from the Museum of the Essex Institute at 

 Salem, Mass., which has lent me, through Fredk. W. Putnam, Director,! nu- 

 merous specimens of Cetaceans, represent this species. It is found in the 

 harbor of that port, and is called the " Puffing Pig." 



As compared with the P. communis, the muzzle is less acuminate and 

 elevated on the median line ; the mamillaries are flatter, oblique, and not de- 

 scending vertically to the alveolar border. The triangle is more elevated, 

 and not flat, medially, and extends to beyond the posterior fourth of the 

 dental series. The premaxillary knobs are strongly developed, and their 

 posterior acumination does not extend behind the middle of the margin of 

 the nareal opening. Nasals with a curved concavity and external prominence. 

 The squamosal bone, occipital process, and sphenoid border are much pli- 

 cated. The points of insertion of the muscles on the basioccipital bone are 

 situate one opposite each condyle, instead of on a median longitudinal ridge. 

 A very small triangular surface of the vomer reaches the palatine plane, 

 giving its posterior border little of that W-shaped outline produced in the 

 P. communis by the large developement of the vomer. The pterygoids are 

 broader than in the same species, nor prolonged so far posteriorly. 



The distance from the coronoid process to the angle of the mandible en- 

 ters 3| times into the length of the ramus ; its middle is measured by the 

 lower part of the condyle. The alveolar border is half the length of the 

 ramus to the coronoid process. 



The sella turcica is but little depressed, and the corpus olivare little ele- 

 vated. The bony falx is well developed near the foramen magnum, but 

 rapidly diminishes superiorly; no tentorium. There is a lateral fontanelle 

 on the supraoccipital of ie specimen, none on the other. 



Proc. Bust. Soc. N. H., 1862, 135. 



f Not Secretary, as accidentally mentioned in my first "Contribution." i 



1865.] 



