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of which the brain is lodged, is formed by an extension of the 

 maxillaries, which are so developed, as, together with other 

 bones, to form a semicircular wall, which in the Sydney skele- 

 ton has less of the horseshoe shape than the head figured by 

 Cuvier, in his " Ossemens Fossiles.^' 



The immense snout of our Sydney whale, like that 

 of the dolphins, is formed of the vomer on the middle 

 line, with the intermaxillaries on each side ; and again 

 having the maxillaries on the outside of all. The 

 vomer is thicker at the base in the Sydney whale than in 

 the one figured by Cuvier, and moreover is best distinguished 

 in the middle line of the roof of the mouth. The extension 

 of the intermaxillaries beyond the maxillaries forms the 

 point of the snout. The nostrils are pierced in the middle 

 of the semicircular cavity mentioned above, at the root of 

 the vomer, and between the bases of the two intermaxillaries. 

 The nostril on the right side is scarcely one-fifth of the width 

 of the left nostril. The direction of both is oblique, and also 

 their position with reference to the line of the vomer. The 

 base of each intermaxillary rises with a curvature on each 

 side of the nostrils, so as to form part of the bottom of that 

 vast semicircular cavity on the back of the head, where is 

 the principal deposit of spermaceti. But the intermaxillary 

 of the right side reaches considerably further back than the 

 left intermaxillary. Indeed, a want of symmetry in the 

 Catodontida generally, is singularly conspicuous ; and in our 

 whale, an organ on one side scarcely ever agrees in size with 

 its corresponding organ on the other side. The left eye, for 

 instance, as Cuvier says, is smaller than the right one ; — 

 indeed, so small, as in Cuvier's specimen, to have almost 

 escaped his observation. He says, moreover, that fisher- 

 men are well aware of the advantage they possess in 

 attacking a sperm whale on its blind side. In like manner, 

 on my first inspection of the carcass in Neutral Bay, I 

 could not discover the left eye in our Sydney whale. This 

 disappearance of the left eye would appear to result 

 from the extreme development of the left nostril, for 



