3. DELPHINUS. 



243 



near the entrance of the inner nostrils, is sharply keeled ; and in a 

 the two ridges are ronnded. 



I am by no means certain that, with a larger series of skulls in a 

 perfect condition, and with the animals they belonged to, it might 

 not result that there are more than one species amongst these 

 skulls. 



In all these skulls the intermaxillaries are seen below, forming a 

 slender, elongated, triangular sjiace in the froiit of the palate, and in 

 some the vomer is also more or less seen in the middle of the palate ; 

 but the absence or presence of this bone in the palate is of very 

 little consequence, as a character, in this kind. 



Measurements of different skulls in the British Museum. 

 particular localities are unknown. 



The 



Cuvier (Oss. Foss. v. 303) described the cervical vertebrae as fused 

 into a single piece, yet in Anat. Comp. i. 105 he states that in the 

 Dolpliins the atlas and axis only are united, the other cervical ver- 

 tebrae remaining separate, though extremely thin. Lesson (Get. 

 p. 226) describes the first six as quite thin in the D. Deljihis, and 

 the last as somewhat thick. Dr. Jackson, who points out these 

 discrepancies, described the dolphin he examined as having the first 

 and second cervicals scarcely moveable upon each other, and the other 

 five smaller and rather more moveable. — Bost. Journ. N. II.\. 155. 



The vertebrae are thus enumerated : — 



1. Cuvier, Anat. Comp. i. 103 14 dorsal, 52 posterior. 



2. Cuvier, Oss. Foss. v. 303 13 „ 47 „ 



3. Lesson, Cet. 22Q 13 „ 52 „ 



4. Jardine, Cetacea 12 „ 52 „ 



5. ? Jackson, Bost. Journ. N. H. v. 154 .... 14 „ 55 „ 



Dr. Jackson gives the following description of an American speci- 

 men: — 



" Dusky black on the back, white on the belly, and lead-coloured 

 on the sides ; a dusky line from 1 to 2 inches in width commenced 

 a little above the eye and passing along the sides was lost in the 



r2 



