1. nvPERoonoN. ;^:29 



a generic character ; Wcsmael describes the apcrtiirc as transverse, 

 linear, slio-htly convex forward in the middle, and slightly bent back 

 at the ends ; and this exjilains, I suspect, the diiferent account that 

 authors have given of this part, some looldng at the middle, and 

 others at the ends only. 



Professor Owen, in the ' Catalogue of the Osteological Series in 

 the Iloyal College of Surgeons,' no. 2479, p. 448, has some notes on 

 " the skeleton of the Bident Dolphin, or Bottlenose Whale {Hypero- 

 oilon hidins)," which was taken in the Thames, near London Bridge, 

 in the year 1783, and is described and figured by John Hunter in 

 the ' Philosophical Transactions' for the year 1787, pi. 19. 



There is in the same collection the front portion of the lower jaw 

 of an immature animal, no. 2480, with the teeth, and showing the 

 sockets of other teeth. 



The lateral border of each maxillary bone is developed into a 

 broad and lofty vertical crest, and the hinder border of the same bone 

 to the occipital region is developed into an occipital crest (/. c. 448). 



Mr. Pearson of the Hull Philosophical Society, Mr. Ball of Dublin, 

 and Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast have sent mo various detailed 

 dramngs of the head of the Hyperoodons talcen off the British and 

 Irish coasts, in their possession ; they, the skeleton at Liverpool, and 

 the French skeleton which has latelj' been added to the Anatomical 

 ]\Iuscum of Paris, appear all to belong to one species, and to be the 

 Slime as Hunter's specimens in the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 the skull figured by Camper and Cuvier. 



Laccpede called the genus Ht/peroodon, and Illiger Uranodon, 

 because of the teeth on the palate described by Baussard. They 

 have not been observed in other specimens ; and Illiger, in his 

 generic character, by mistake, says the two teeth are in the upper 

 jaw (Gen. 143). Professor Eschricht proposed the name of Cheno- 

 cdus, instead of Ilnperoodon, which is founded on an erroneous 

 description. The name Goose WJiaJe, or its translation, is applied to 

 this animal by the inhabitants of most part of the seas where it 

 inhabits, and it was earlj- described as the Goose-heaked Whale by 

 Pontoppidan (Nat. Hist. Norway, chap. v. 123, 124, fig.). Dr. Jacob 

 calls it Cctodiodon. 



Professor Eschricht, in the ' Danish Transactions,' has given an 

 account of the histoiy of the genus, and of its anatomy, including 

 some admirable details of its brain. He also shows that there are 

 numerous small teeth in the jaws (see figiu'es at pj). 331-335), besides 

 tlie two large teeth in front. — Danish Acad . Trans, ii. 327,331,332, 

 3.34, 335 ; Ann. ^- Mag. JV. II. 1852, ix. 283. 



0. Fabricius described a whale, under the name of Monndon spu- 

 rius, called by the Greenlanders Anarnah, as haAnng two small, 

 conical, slightly curved, blunt teeth prominent in front of the upper 

 jaw ; the lower jaw toothless. M. Cuvier (Oss. Foss.) regards it as 

 a Ihiperoodon, and he only believed in the existence of one species 

 of the genus, il. F. Cuvier. who misunderstood the descrijition of 

 Chemnitz with respect to the teeth of Bahina ro.Hrata, is inclined to 

 unite it to that species, with which it agrees in being all black, but 



