210 



CATODONTID^. 



The South-Sea Sperm Whale. 



Physeter polycvplius, Quay i^- Gaim. ZooL Uran. Mamm. t. 12, cop. 



Reicheiib. Ceiac. 5. t. 5. I 13, 

 Physeter australis asiaticiis, Desmouliiis, Diet. Class. H. N. ii. 618 ; 



Fischer, St/n. 5\8,fro)n Quoy. 

 Catodon polyscyphus, Lesson, Mamm. 422. 

 Cachalot, or Sperm Whale, Bennett, IVTialiny Voyage, ii. 153, fig. 



Inhab. Molucca. 



Only described and figured from a drawing by an English sea 

 captain. 



The humps on the hinder part of the back, from which MM. Quoy 

 and Gaimard name the^ Molucca Sperm Whale, do not appear, by 

 the account of Dr. Jackson and Mr. Couch, to be a pecuharity of that 

 animal. 



Under the name Physeter polycyphus, the Humped Blower, Mr. 

 Couch, in his ' Cornish Fauna,' observes : — " A specimen like the 

 figure of the above in Gaimard, ran itself on shore in pursuit of 

 small fish several years since ; another was seen and minutely de- 

 scribed to me by an intelligent fisherman ; but it would appear that 

 the number of humps on the back is variable. It is probably the 

 Balcena monstrosa, lluysch, Theat. Anim. i. t. 41." — Couch, Cornish 

 Fauna, 9. It is curious that the same form should be observed in 

 the Northern and Southern oceans. 



" The Spermaceti Whale is not uncommon in the latitudes of New 

 Zealand, and often falls a prey to the whale ships which cruise in 

 the open sea ; but it does not approach the shallow coast or inlets, 

 as its habits are different from those of the Black Whale. One 

 driven on shore atTe-awa-iti gave about 2 tuns of oil." — Dieffenhach, 

 New Zealand, i. 42. 



II. Head depressed, broad, rounded in front. Blmcer on the back of the 

 forehead. Dorsal Ji7i compressed, falcate. 



2. PHYSETER. 



"Head rounded, very large, in the adult about one-fourth the entire 

 length of animal, oblong, rather compressed ; eyes small, on the sides 

 behind the blower, convex above ; upper jaw longest ; the blowers 

 on the middle of the top of the head, sejiarate, covered with one flap ; 

 pectoi'al fin moderate, triangular ? ; dorsal fin high, falcate ; teeth 

 conical, compressed ; the male organ under the front edge of the 

 dorsal, and the vent nearly under its hinder edge." — Sihhalcl. 



Physeter, sp., Linn.; Artedi; Illiger, Prodr. 143, 1811; Gray, Zool. 



JE. 8>- T. ; Cat. Cetac. B. M. 53; P. Z. S. 1863 ; 1864, 234. 

 Physeter, R(ifin. Anal. Nat. 1815, 60. 

 Tursio, Fleming, Phil. Zool. 211, 1822 (P. microps). 

 Cetus (Ruckcntinne), Oken, Lehrb. Nat. 076. 

 ? (^rthodon, Rafin. Anal. Nat. 60, 1815 (no char, nor type). 

 Physeteres, Lacep. ; F. Cm: D. S. N lix. 318. 



Wc only know this genus by the description and figure of Sibbald. 



