261 



XLL— Notes on Professor Owen's Description of Euphysctes . 

 simus. By Dr. J. E. Gray, IMl.S. &c. 



Professor Owen, in a note to his paper on Indian Cetacea, in 

 the 'Transactions of the Zoological Society/ vol. vi. p. 37, ob- 

 serves : — " M. de Blainville figures, but makes no mention of, 

 this bony ridge bisecting the 'postnariaP cavity. Dr. Gray, in 

 appending the term Ko(/ia to the Phj/seter breviceps, De Blainv. 

 (Zoology of the Erebus and Terror, Cetacea, 4to, 1846, p. 22), 

 is equally silent — indeed, adds nothing to De Blainville's meagre 

 sketch of so remarkable a cranium, and quotes his admeasure- 

 ments as in English inches and lines, without correction for the 

 difference of the French ' foot.' Macleay was the tirst who pointed 

 out the heavy ridge of bone that longitudinally divides the 

 spermacetic cavity into two unequal parts {op. cit. p. 47) as sub- 

 genericallv distinguishing his Euphysetes from Physeter or CatO' 

 don:' 



To this I have only to observe : — First, that the skull from the 

 Cape figured by M. de Blainville does not possess the " heavy 

 ridge of bone " found in the Indian and Australian skulls, but in 

 the place of it has a couple of thin elevated plates united in front 

 and forming a funnel-shaped cavity. The possession of the heavy 

 bony ridge described by Mr. Macleay is the best character to 

 separate the Australian and Indian species from that of the 

 Cape. 



Secondly, that I acknowledged that what was printed in the 

 ' Zoology of the Erebus and Terror ' was a mere translation of 

 De Blainville's account ; and if I had corrected the admeasure- 

 ments into English feet, I should only have misled the reader. 

 As I had only seen the skull years previously for a few minutes, I 

 did not venture, from recollection, to make any addition to the 

 original description. I am very glad that my essay to unravel 

 the Cetacea, which, until my paper in the ' Voyage of the Erebus 

 and Terror ' above cited appeared, had scarcely been studied in 

 a zoological point of view since the appearance of M. Cuvier's re- 

 searches in the ' Ossemens Fossiles,' can only be assailed by such 

 trivial observations as those above cited and the objection that 

 I had not stated as clearly as I might the length of the sym- 

 physis of the lower jaw of Steno (/. c. p. 19) ; yet I sliould have 

 thought that any one reading the characters would see that I com- 

 pared the length of the suture with that of the lower jaw itself. 



The publication of the observations on Whales in the ' Zoo- 

 logy of the Erebus and Terror,' which I know are very imperfect, 

 and which I have since done all in my power to improve, has been 

 followed by the recognition of three times as many large Whales 

 as were known before its appearance, and they have lately been 



Ann. ^ Ma(/,N, Hist, Ser. 3. FoL .\ix. ] 9 



