THE SOUTHERN WHALE. 359 



GENERA HUNTERIUS, CAPERIA, MACLEAYIUS. 



These three Southern genera are only beginning to be understood. 

 In one or more of them a curious horny substance is commonly observed 

 upon the fore-part of the head, which the whalers denominate the crea- 

 ture's " bonnet." One in the British Museum, obtained at the Sandwich 

 Islands, is oblong in shape, eleven inches long and eight inches wide, 

 with a very rough, pitted surface. The whole substance seems to be 

 formed of irregular homy layers placed one over the other, the lowest 

 layer being the last one formed ; and each of these layers is more or less 

 crumpled and plicated on the surface, giving the irregular appearance to 

 the mass. " I do not recollect obsers'ing any account of this ' bonnet,' " 

 writes Dr. Gray, " or giant com, or rudimentary frontal horn, as it may be 

 regarded, in any account of the Right Whale, nor in that of the Cacha- 

 lot. I have especially searched for it in works by persons who have 

 seen these whales alive, but without success. It has been suggested by 

 Mr. Holdsworth, that the ' bonnet ' may be a natural development, and 

 possibly characteristic of the species bearing it." 



Our knowledge of the Cetaceans is still very incomplete ; they dwell 

 in the most inaccessible parts of the ocean, and the swiftness of their 

 movements rarely allows more than a transient view of their external 

 form. Doubtless many species are still unknown, and doubtless, too, one 

 and the same species has often been described under different names. 



