3. KOGIA. 215 



Mr. Couch thinks he has seen this whale " on the coast of Corn- 

 waU. It also occurred in May ISoO. The fin was not less than 

 / teot high." He further observes, " This species is supposed to be 

 the whale sometimes seen on the Cornish coast sailing rapidh^ alono- 

 at a uiuform elevation in the water, vrith its slender but elevated lin 

 above the surfiice white. The body is lineated helow.''— Couch 

 Corn. Fawm, 7. ' 



In the Catalogue of the Mu.seum of the Royal College of Sur"-eons 

 the truncated whale's-teeth are called " the teeth of the Hio-h-finn-d 

 Cachalot, P. Tur,;o ? " p. 171, n. 1189-1194. And the smaU jaws 

 ot the feperm Whale are caUed " the Lesser Cachalot (PJu/seter Cnto- 

 don, Linn.)." 



See also Physeter suhatus (Laccp. Mem. Mus. iv. 47-5), fi-om a 

 Japanese drawing, with the dorsal fin over the pectoral and the iaws 

 grooved. •' 



The Black-fish, or Bahena microcephalm of Sibbald, the PTimeter 

 micro^>s, ^^■hlch I thought formerly might be the Ardluh of Fabri- 

 cms, but wluch Esehricht after much consideration feels assured is 

 the female Delphinus Orca, has entirely escaped the research of 

 Jischncht and all other writers on the Whales of the North Seas. 



The greatest desideratum of zoology is the power of examinino- 

 some specimens of the genus Ph>,seter, or Black-fish as it is called 

 by the whalers. There is not a bone, nor even a fragment of a bone 

 nor any part that can be proved to have belonged to a specimen of 

 this gigantic animal to be seen in any museum in Europe This is 

 the more remarkable as the animal grows to the length of more than 

 1, if^'.x'iu*^,'^ mentioned under the name of the Black-fish in almost 

 aU the W haling \ oyages ; and two specimens of it were examined 

 by Sibbald, having occui-red on the coast of Scotland. The only 

 account which we have of the animal, on which zoologists can i)lace 

 any reliance is that fm-nished by Sibbald in his littic tractate on 

 Scotch \\Tiales. 



J^^^ J^"^^'^'^' ■niinoribus in inferiore maxilla tanfmn dentafis (Sibb. 

 Phal. 24), on which Linnaeus established Phi/sefer Catodon, and 

 Fleming the Catodon Sibhaldii, is evidently a Belufja. 



3. KOGIA. 



Head moderately short, very broad, rounded behind and sub- 

 tctrangular in front, where the base is broad, and the snout trun- 

 cated, slightly reflcxcd and niarginated at the extremity. The blow- 

 hole single, externally large, .situated at the base of the foreliead 

 near the middle of the head. Snout turned up at tlie margin. 

 Pectoral fin broad, truncated, with 5 fingi-rs, first and fifth shortest, 

 second longest, third and fourtli gradually shorter. Dorsal fin tri- 

 angular; front edge rather convex, at an angle of 45° ; hinder edge 

 concave, perpendicular. Caudal tnangular, terminal edge sinuat«I. 

 Skull broad, triangular; beak short, I)road, fiat above; hinder 

 part very broad, semicircular, and surrounded by a bony ridge formed 

 by the maxillaries. This sperm-cavitj- is longitudinally divided by a 



