46 



The character which Mr. Gray, of the British Museum, has 

 ascribed to his short- headed toothed whales, or his genus 

 Kogia is as follows : — " Head moderate, broad, triangular. 

 Lower jaw wide beneath, slender, united by a short sym- 

 physis in front. Jaw bone of skull broad, triangular, as broad 

 as long." 



Now De Blainville (Ann. Anat. Phys. III. t. 15) had pre- 

 viously by means of a single skull from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and which is lodged in the Paris Museum, 

 distinguished a cetacean mammal under the name of 

 Physeter hreviceps, with the following characters, viz. : — 

 "Skull very broad and high. The frontal crest very 

 distinct, and the nasal pit very deep, rather like that of the 

 cachalot. Nose very short and pointed, very rapidly tapering, 

 only one inch longer than the breadth of occipital bone. 

 The lower jaw is very wide apart at the condyles, bent 

 sharply inwards, and united in front by a moderate symphysis 

 and very narrow, but rounded at the end. Teeth, fourteen 

 or fifteen, narrow, slender, conical, acute, and rather arched 

 inwardly ; length of skull, fourteen inches six lines ; lower 

 jaw, thirteen inches ; separation of the condyles, twelve 

 inches ; symphysis, about two-ninths of length of lower jaw ; 

 beak, the length of width at the notch. This skull bears 

 no resemblance to the skull of the young sperm whale." 

 And it was upon these few facts recorded by De Blainville, 

 that Mr. Gray founded his genus Kogia, with the above- 

 mentioned character. 



The Sydney animal, whose head has been described 

 above, may be called Eupliyseies, and as a genus, the 

 following characters may be assigned to it, viz. : — Head 

 moderate, rounded behind, and subtetrangular in front 

 where the base is broad, and the snout truncated, 

 slightly reflexed, and marginated at the extremity; the 

 spermacetic cavity of skull is longitudinally divided by a bony 

 ridge near the occiput ; single blowhole externally situated in 

 middle of head at base of snout ; lower jaw, wide at the con- 

 dyles, having the branches in front united into a short 



