1. CATODON. 197 



Clusius erroneously describes the blowers as placed on the head 

 near the back, and Artedi and Linnceus adopt this error in their 

 character of Phijseter mucrocepJialus. Anderson (Iceland, ii. 186. t. 4) 

 gives a figure of a whale with a truncated head, much resembling 

 the old figures of the Sperm Whale, with the blower on the hinder 

 part of the head, like a Phijseter. Bonnaterre established on this 

 figure his Phijseter cjUndrus ; and Lace'pede forms a genus for it, 

 which he calls Phjsalus. The Dutch engraving of the animal de- 

 scribed by Clusius shows this to have been a mistake. 



The bunch and hump referred to by Beale and the other whalers 

 appear first to have been described by T. Hasajus of Bremen, in 1723, 

 in a dissertation on the ' Le^•iathan of Job and the Whale of Jonas ; ' 

 on " a specimen 70 feet long, -with a very large head, the lower jaw 

 16 feet long, with 52 pointed teeth, with a boss on the back, and 

 another near the tail, which resembles a fin." Cuvier, after quoting 

 this verj- accurate description, observes, " Mais d'apres I'observation 

 fait sur divers dauphins, cette disposition que personne n'a revue 

 pourroit avoir etc accidentelle, et alors cet animal n'auroit differe en 

 rien du Cachalot vulgaire" (Oss. Foss. v. 331). Indeed he wrongly 

 accuses Bonnaterre of having added a tubercle in his copy of Ander- 

 son's figure, which is not in the original (Oss. Foss. 333). Anderson, 

 in the description of tliis animal, says that it has a prominence 4 feet 

 long and a foot and a half high near its tail, as in his figure. But the 

 fact was that Cuvier erroneously combined the Sperm Wliale and the 

 Black-fish (Plu/seter) together ; and he could not otherwise reconcile 

 how some authors, as Hasaius, Anderson, and Pennant, described the 

 Sperm 'Whale with a hump, while Sibbald describes the Phijseter, 

 which Cuvier erroneously considered the same animal, with a dorsal 

 fin, overlooking at the same time the great difference in the form of 

 the head, and in the position of the blower of these two very dis- 

 similar genera (Oss. Foss. 338). 



" When the young Cachalot has attained the length of 34 feet, its 

 teeth are perfectly formed, though not visible until it exceeds 

 28 iectr— Bennett, P. Z. S. 1836. 



" The teeth in the lower jaw (in young specimens 16 feet long) had 

 not yet come through. Captain Benjamin Chase states that he has 

 more than once seen teeth of a considerable size in the upper jaw of 

 the adidt females, though always covered by the gum. The males, 

 he says, being much larger, are cut up differently, and in such a way 

 as not to expose the teeth." — Jaclson, Boston ilaj. N. H. v. 140. 



" The upper jaw is not altogether toothless, as usually described. 

 It has on either side a short row of terth, which for the most part 

 are placcM more interior than the depressions which receive the teeth 

 of the lower jaw, thoTigh they sometimes also occupy the bottom of 

 these cavities. Their entire length is 3 inches ; they are curved 

 backwards and elevated about half an inch abi)ve the soft parts, in 

 which they are deeply imbedded, having only a slight attachment to 

 the maxillarj' bone. In two instances I have found their number 

 to be eight on each side. They exist in both sexes of the Sperm 

 Whale ; and although \-isible externally only in the adidt, they may 



