/Z CETACEA. 



Besides the beautiful figure engraved in Sowerby's British 

 Miscellany, there is a drawing of the head as sent by Mr. Brodie, 

 made by Mr. Sowerby, and exhibited by him at one of Sir Joseph 

 Banks' s Sunday-evening parties, now preserved in the Banksian 

 collection in the British Museum. The skull was preserved in 

 Mr. Sowerby's museum, in Mead's Place, and wiien distributed 

 at his death it was purchased by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, the Dean 

 of Westminster, and sent to the anatomical museum in Oxford, 

 from whence Dr. Acland kindly sent it to me for examination. 



While in Mr. Sowerby's possession, M. De Blainville, when on 

 a visit to England, made a slight sketch of the skull (engraved in 

 Zool. Erebus and Terror, t. 5), and, under the name of D. Sower- 

 biensis, gives the following description of it : " Tete osseusse, la 

 machoire superieure est plus courte et infiniment plus etroite que 

 Pinferieure qui la recoit ; en outre cette machoire inferieure est 

 armee de chaque cote et au milieu de son bord d'un seul dent tres 

 fort comprimee et dirigee obliquement en arriere. L' orifice de le 

 vent est en croissant dont les comes sont tournees en avant." 

 Blainv. Desm. Diet. H. N. ix. 177- 



The above description and Blainville's sketch show that it be- 

 longs to the genus Ziphius of Cuvier, before only known in the 

 fossil state ; and the examination of the skull has proved the 

 accuracy of these determinations. 



Before discovering the drawing of the skull, I was induced to 

 regard this species, from the lateral position of the teeth and 

 small size of the fins, as the same as the Delphinorhynchus mi- 

 cropterus of the coast of France and Belgium (see Ann. fy Mag. 

 N. H. 1846), believing the difference in the size of the teeth 

 (which Mr. James Sowerby's description appears to indicate) to 

 be only a peculiarity produced probably by the age of the speci- 

 men, instead of being, as it has proved to be, a distinctive cha- 

 racter of the genus. 



** Jaws short. 

 2. ZIPHIUS SECHELLENSIS. The SECHELLE ZIPHIUS. 



Ziphius de Sechelles (M. le Due, 1839), Mus. Paris. 



Ziphius Sechellensis, Gray, Zool. E. $ T. 28. t. 6. f. 1, 2, lower 



jaw. 

 Inhab. Sechelles. a. Skull in Mus. Paris. 



The skull is very like that of Delphinus micropterus, but the 

 nose-bones are thicker, heavier and higher. The teeth in the 

 middle of the lower jaw, as in Z. Sowerbiensis, but larger and 

 compressed. The hinder part of the lower jaw is very broad, the 

 front half much narrower and bent down in an arched manner. 



Verv like the fossil from D'Anvers. 



