54 CETACEA. 



According to Sibbald they produce spermaceti. Cuvier, in his 

 ' History and Examination of the Synonyma of the Cachalots or 

 Sperm Whales' (Oss. Foss. v. 328/338), regards the description 

 of this animal given hy Sibbald as merely a redescription of the 

 Sperm Whale, and finds great fault with Artedi, Bonnaterre, and 

 others, for having considered them as separate ; and he regards 

 the second blunt- toothed specimen as either a Delphinus glo- 

 biceps or a D. Tursio which had lost its upper teeth ; this error 

 is important, as it vitiates many of his subsequent observations. 

 To have come to these conclusions he must have overlooked 

 Sibbald's figure and ample details of the first, and the figure of 

 the teeth of the second, or they would have at once shown him 

 his error. That he did so is certain; for when he conies to 

 Schreber's reduced copy of Sibbald's figures of Balana microce- 

 phala (p. 337), he says Schreber does not indicate its origin ; but 

 on this copy of Sibbald's figure, which he before regarded as a 

 Sperm Whale, he observes, that " from the form of its lower jaw 

 it most resembles a large dolphin which had lost its upper 

 teeth." 



Thus, while Cuvier was reducing the numerous species of Sperm 

 Whales that had been made by Bonnaterre, Lacepede, and other 

 compiling French authors, to a single species, he has inadvert- 

 ently confounded with it the very distinct genus of Black-fish, or 

 Physeter of Artedi, which has a very differently formed head, the 

 top of the head being flattened, and with the blowers on the hinder 

 part of its crown, and with a distinct dorsal fin, particulars all 

 well described by Sibbald, a most accurate observer and consci- 

 entious recorder, and not badly represented by Bayer. 



Some parts of Sibbald's description, and his reference to 

 Johnston's figure, might lead to this error ; but his figures, which 

 exactly agree in proportion with his description, though not re- 

 ferred to in the text, at once set this at rest, the drawing being 

 T \ of the natural size, that is to say, 6 feet to an inch ; and he 

 observes that his animal is longer and more slender than Wil- 

 loughby's figure of the Sperm Whale. 



Sibbald describes the comparatively small triangular dorsal to 

 be erect, like a "Mizam mast," which Artedi and Linnaeus 

 translate pinna altissima, and cause Shaw to call it the High- 

 finned Cachalot. Dr. Fleming by mistake calls this species the 

 Spermaceti Whale (Brit. A. 38); and he refers to P. macrocephalus 

 (Linn.) as the true Sperm Whale figured by Robertson. Sibbald, 

 in speaking of another specimen, says, " spinam dorso longam" 

 as correctly quoted by Artedi and Linnaeus, but used by them in 

 opposition to the altissima of their other species. 



J. Bayer (Act. Nat. Cur. 1733, 111. 1. t. 1) gives a rather 

 fanciful but very recognizable figure of a male specimen of this 



