Bknham. — On the Lesser Sperm Whale. 157 



fully grown, measuring 8 ft. 9 in. from tip of the snout to the 

 bottom of the notch in the fluke ; Von Haast's was a young 

 female, the length of which was only 7ft..2in. :;: I took no 

 measurements of girth, as the animal was too much injured 

 for such measurements to have any value. 



The flipper, or pectoral limb, measured 14 in. in a straight 

 line from base to tip, or 15 in. along the slightly curved 

 anterior margin. Its breadth was 5^ in. across the widest 

 part, and 5 in. across the base. The form of the flipper is 

 shown in the figure. The anterior margin has a regular, 

 slightly convex curve ; the posterior margin is angulated, the 

 angle being rounded, and enclosed by a shorter proximal limb 

 of 4 in. and a longer distal concave limb of 8 in. in length. 



The tail-flukes measured 2 ft. 3 in. across their ends; each 

 fluke is 12 in. across (parallel to the axis of the body) in its 

 widest part ; the median notch between the two flukes is 5-|in. 

 deep, measured from a line joining the two tips of the flukes. 



The head measured 1 ft. 4 in. — in other words, is rather less 

 than one-sixth the total length of the body, in which it is con- 

 tained six and a half times. 



One of the most interesting of the anatomical features is 

 the asymmetry of the blowhole and of the structures re- 

 lated to " spouting." The single blowhole, or left nostril, 

 lies on the upper surface of the head ; is crescentic, with the 

 convexity forwards and outwards, and therein differing from 

 the usual form m Odontocetes. The distance between the 

 horns of the crescent is 2^ in. ; the inner (mesial) horn being 

 rather further forward (1-| in.) than the outer one, and about 

 12 in. from the tip of the snout (measured after the blubber 

 had been removed). Von Haast states that the " slit was 2 in. 

 long, of which 1^ in. was on the left side and -| in. on the right 

 side." In my own specimen it appeared to be wholly on the 

 left of the middle line. 



Without going into details, which I have published else- 

 where, I may briefly describe the apparatus connected with 

 the blowhole. The crescent leads into a wide, shallow pit or 

 vestibule, closed by a fleshy valve, on raising which the two nos- 

 trils are seen. The left one is a wide crescentic aperture lead- 

 ing into a wide circular and simple canal, which passes directly 

 downwards through the skull to open into the naso-palatine 

 canal which communicates with the mouth by the posterior 

 nares. The right nostril is, however, very small and slit-like, 

 situated at extreme right corner of the vestibule, and the 

 canal into which it leads passes obliquely forwards and down- 



*This is precisely the length given by Mr. Elliott, who supplied 

 Professor Owen with the material on which his paper is founded. (See 

 Trans. Zool. Soc, vi., p. 172.) 



