426 PHYSETERID^. 



it to be a well-established species (Vidensk. Selsk. Skrift., 

 vol. V.). 



Besides the skull from Orkney in the British Museum, 

 there is a skeleton in the Museum of Science and Art 

 at Edinburgh which Dr. Gray has identified with this 

 species ; this is stated by Mr. W. Thomson (Ann. and 

 Mag. Nat. Hist., XVII., 153) to have belonged to a, female 

 twenty-eight feet six inches long which was taken in the 

 Firth of Forth on the 28th October 1839, accompanied by 

 a young male. Dr. Gray also mentions one taken in 

 Morecamb Bay, Lancashire, the imperfect skull of which 

 is preserved in a garden near Lancaster. The large 

 Bottle-head described by Hunter was in all probability of 

 this species ; unfortunately the skull, which he says was 

 in his collection, has disappeared, and only a portion of the 

 lower jaw is now in the Museum of the Royal College of 

 Surgeons. 



Beyond our own seas the Broad-fronted Beaked- Whale 

 has been taken in Greenland, whence there are skeletons 

 in the Museums of Newcastle and Copenhagen, and the 

 Faeroes, as mentioned by Prof. Eschricht. We believe 

 also that the skull of a French specimen is in the Caen 

 Museum. 



Nothing has been recorded of the outward appearance 

 of this species, which is known only from its bones. The 

 principal distinctive characters of the skull lie in the 

 great raised crests of the maxillary bones, which are very 

 much thickened and flattened above, so as almost to touch 

 one another, whereas, in H. rostrata, they are rather 

 sharp-edged above, and separated by a considerable in- 

 terval. In H. latifrons these crests rise absolutely higher 

 than the occipital region of the skull, which is not the 

 case in the common species. 



This animal appears to be considerably larger than the 



