34 



the extremity * It is not unlike the corresponding bone in 

 the pelvis of the Southern true whale, but is comparatively- 

 shorter and less slender. The dimensions of the bones are as 

 follow : — 



1st Bone Length. 



Breadth at base . . . 



Ditto at middle . . . 



Ditto at poijit 



Thickness at middle 



Thickness at hook . 

 2nd Bone— Length 



Greatest breadth . . 



Still the subject of the pelvis in the genus Catodonohyiously 

 requires further elucidation by means of more perfect speci- 

 mens. And here, I may remark, that it would be of great 

 service to the promotion of natural science if the officers of 

 whaling vessels, and persons having opportunities along the 

 coast of Australia, would forward to our Museum specimens 

 of the Cetacea of the Pacific Ocean, or their bones. It is in- 

 deed rather discreditable that our Colonial collection should 

 not be in possession of any specimen of the common porpoise 

 of Port Jackson (if it be a porpoise), or of the dugong of 

 our north-eastern shores. The last deficiency is the more 

 tantalizing, as although there is said to be a considerable fish- 

 ery of dugongs so near to us as Moreton Bay, naturalists are 

 still ignorant whether the Australian species be the same with 

 the dugong of Java and Sumatra. 



We have now finished our survey of the bony structure 



of the sperm whale of our Australian coast, and I think it has 



been quite sufficient to enable us to decide that this species is 



♦neither the same as Beale's Yorkshire whale nor yet as Cuvier's 



* In page 88 of Beale, he mentions a bone of his Yorkshire whale, which, 

 from its shape, I should imagine to be the same as this, but it is seven times 

 the length, and he assigns to it a quite different use. 



