56 Messrs. T. Southwell and W. E. Clarke on 



the blowhole in this individual was transverse instead of semi- 

 lunar. The flipper was 1 foot 10 inches in length from the 

 head of the humerus, and its greatest diameter 6^ inches ; it 

 came almost to a point at the tip, the anterior border being 

 slightly convex ; the posterior border for 7 inches from the 

 axilla was almost straight and then rapidly sloped forward to 

 the tip ; the colour on botli surfaces was " like that of a well- 

 blackened boot." The above particulars comprise all that is 

 known with certainty with regard to the appearance of this 

 singular animal. 



The Ziphioid whales to which the genus Mesoplodon belongs 

 were very numerous in the seas surrounding Great Britain 

 during tlie period in which tlie Suffolk Crag was deposited, 

 as testified by the abundance of their remains found in that 

 formation ; but in the present day, with the exception of one 

 species q>{ Hyper oodon^ which congregates in considerable num- 

 bers in the Arctic seas in summer^ and which not unfrequently 

 makes its appearance on the British coasts in autuum, the 

 other members of the subfamily are amongst the least known 

 of any of the Cetaceans found in our seas. Of the genus 

 Mesojihdon only one species has hitherto been met with in the 

 Korth Atlantic, viz. that which forms the subject of this notice, 

 unless the Cetacean found dead in the British Channel about 

 the year 1840 (the skull of which is in the Museum at Caen) 

 and described by Gervais under the name of M. europceus, 

 should prove to be distinct ; but of the seven or eight species 

 known, three at least are well established, and some fairly 

 abundant in the seas extending from the Cape of Good Hope 

 to New Zealand ; others are of great rarity and at present little 

 known. Prof. Flower has contributed an excellent mono- 

 graph of this genus, which will be found in the tenth volume 

 of tlie * Transactions of the Zoological Society,' in which he 

 points out certain well-marked characters common to the whole 

 genus, subject to slight specific modifications ; one of these is 

 the remarkable mandibular tooth already referred to, and which, 

 whether situated near the apex of the mandible as in M. Hectori 

 or near the hinder edge of the mandibular symphysis as in M. 

 hidens, always forms agood distinctive character. In the fully 

 adult male of the species under consideration these teeth project 

 about 2 inches above the gum, are laterally compressed, trian- 

 gular in form, the apex at first directed backwards and then 

 slightly forwards, the tooth projecting tusk-like outside the 

 upper lip. In M. Loyardi this singular form of tooth reaches 

 its extreme, and is described by Prof. Turner* as reaching a 



* " Form and Structure of the Teeth of 3Iesoplodon,'' ' Journal of 

 Anatomy and Physiolcgy,' xiii. p. 469. 



