1. IIYPEROODON. 'A'29 



a generic character ; Wesmael describes the aperture as transverse, 

 linear, slightly convex forward in the middle, and slightly bent back 

 at the ends ; and this explains, I suspect, the different account that 

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

 others at the ends only. 



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

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

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

 odon hidens),^^ which was taken in the Thames, near London Ih'idge, 

 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 showdng the 

 sockets of other teeth. 



The lateral border of each maxillary bone is developed iiito a 

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

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



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

 and IMr. W. Thompson of Belfast have sent me various detailed 

 drawings of the head of the Hyperoodons taken off the British and 

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

 the French skeleton which has lately been added to the Anatomical 

 Museum of Paris, appear all to belong to one species, and to be the 

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

 the skull figured by Camper and Cuvier. 



Lacepede called the genus Hifperoodon, and Tlliger 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 C'Jieno- 

 cetns, instead of Uyperoodon, which is founded on an erroneous 

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

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

 inhabits, and it was early described as the Goose-heaJced Wlude by 

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

 calls it Cetodiodon. 



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

 account of the history 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 figures at pp. 331-335), besides 

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

 334, 335 ; Ann. Sf Mag. N. H. 1852, ix. 283. 



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

 rius, called by the Greenlanders AnarnaJc, as having 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 Hyperoodon, and he only believed in the existence of one species 

 of the genus. M. F. Cuvier, who misuiiderstood the description of 

 Chemnitz with respect to the teeth of BaJania rosfrata, is inclined to 

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



