14 



Lacepede, and genera formed by him, have been used in our latest works, some even in Cuvier's last edition of the 

 ' Animal Kingdom ;' and many of these species still encumber our Catalogues. 



Cuvier, dissatisfied with this state of things, in his 'Ossemens Fossiles,' examined the various documents and con- 

 sulted the authorities which had been used by Lacepede ; but, unfortunately, instead of examining with diligence the 

 various descriptions, and comparing the various figures and their proportions, &c., he appears to have undertaken the 

 work with a predisposition to reduce the number of species which his predecessor had described, to the smallest 

 number. Thus, he concludes that there are only eleven species of Dolphins, one Narwhal, one Hyperoodon, one 

 Cachalot or Sperm Whale ; and he ajjpears to think there are only two Whalebone Whales, the Right Whale and 

 the Finner. To make this reduction, he believes that the Hump-backed Whale of Dudley is only a Whale that has 

 lost its fin, not recognizing that the Cape Rorqual, which he afterwards described from the fine skeleton now shown in 

 the inner court of the Paris Museum, is one of this kind, and that the Black-fish and the Sperm Whale are the same 

 species ; an error which must have arisen from his not having observed that Sibbald had figured the former, for he ac- 

 cuses Sibbald of twice describing the Sperm Whale, and when he came to Schreiber's copy of Sibbald's figure, he 

 thinks the figure represents a Dolphin which had lost its upper teeth, overlooking the peculiar form and posterior posi- 

 tion of the dorsal fin, and the shape of the head, which is unlike that of any known Dolphin. This mistake is impor- 

 tant, as it vitiates the greater part of Cuvier's criticism on the writings of Sibbald, Artedi, and others, on these animals. 

 And unfortunately his views have been very generally adopted without re-examination, especially in the ' Catalogue of 

 the Osteological Specimens in the Museum of the College of Surgeons,' p. 169. It is but right to observe that in 

 making these remarks I do not in the least desire to underrate the great obligation we owe to Cuvier for the papers 

 above refen'ed to. It is to him that we are indebted for having placed the examination of the Whales on its right 

 footing, and for directing our enquiries into the safe course on these animals, which only fall in our way at distant pe- 

 riods, and generally under very disadvantageous circumstances for accurate examination and study. 



M. F. Cuvier's 'Cetacea' (Paris, 1836) is little more than an expansion of his brother's essays, with a compiled 

 account of the species ; but he has consulted with greater attention the works of Sibbald and Dudley, has some doubts 

 about the finned Cachalots being the same as the Sperm Whale (p. 475), but at length gives up the subject. He has 

 found out that the Hump-backed Whale is evidently a Rorqual (p. 305), but does not record it as a species, nor recog- 

 nize it as the Cape Rorqual nor as Dr. Johnston's Whale ; the latter he incorrectly considers the same as B. Physalus. 

 He combines together as one species Quoy's short-finned Rorqual of the Falkland Islands with Lalande's long-finned 

 Whale of the Cape, (p. 352). He is quite at sea about the hump of the Cachalots, (p. 279) ; his remarks on that sub- 

 ject, and on the Cachalots of Sibbald, show how dangerous it is for a naturalist to speculate beyond his knowledge. 



Sir William Jardine's Whales in the' Naturalists' Library' is an abridgement of M. Lesson's miserable compilation, 

 with some extracts from English writers on the subject. 



Nor are the British species better known ; for in Fleming's work they are left nearly in the same state they were in 

 when Linnffius published his twelfth edition of the ' Systema Naturte ; ' and Mr. Bell's account and figures are entirely 

 derived from preceding authors, without any addition being made to our knowledge : while this revision, though not 

 undertaken with any view to this subject has taken three or four species from our list, and determined the specific 

 identity of one hitherto neglected, and added two or three species for the first time to our Fauna. 



I am by no means convinced that all the species in the following Synopsis are distinct. It is rather to be regarded 

 as a collection of the accounts of the Whales of different locahties, derived from the materials at present at our com- 

 mand; and I have endeavoured to select from these sources what appeared to afford the best characters for defining 

 them, so as to furnish to those naturalists who might enjoy the opportunity of observing the animals, a short abstract 

 of what has been said with regard to them, and of referring them to where they could find a more detailed account of 

 each kind. I have been induced to adopt this course, as wherever I have had the opportunity of examining and 

 comparing the proportions of the allied species of distant seas, and of comparing their bones, they have invariably 

 proved distinct, which leads me to believe that many of the other species of different countries, which have been re- 

 garded as the same, will be found to be distinct, though representatives of those found in other seas. 



