174 Zoological Society : — 



B. Head rounded in front, not beaked; beak of the tkull scarcely 

 as long as the brain-cavity. 



a. Pectoral Jins falcate, elongate, low down, near together on the 

 chest ; head much swollen ; intermaxillary bones very wide, 

 covering the maxilla above; teeth conical; side of maxilla 

 expanded horizontally. Globiocephalina. 



12. Globiocephalus. 



b. Pectoral fins ovate, wide apart, lateral; intermaxillary bones 

 moderate. Phocsenina. 



t The lateral wing of the maxilla horizontally produced over the 

 orbit ; dorsal distinct ; teeth conical. 



13. Orca. Teeth large, acute, permanent. Intermaxillaries mo- 

 derately wide. 



14. Grampus. Teeth early deciduous. Intermaxillaries broad. 

 "f~f The lateral wings of the maxilla shelving down over the orbit. 



* Teeth permanent, compressed, sharp-edged. 



15. Phoc^ena. Dorsal triangular, central. 



16. Neomeris. Dorsal fin none. 



** Teeth early deciduous, conical ; dorsal none. 



1 7. Beluga. Teeth in both jaws early deciduous. 



18. MoNOCEROS. Teeth very early deciduous. Male with a pro- 

 jecting spiral tusk in the upper jaw. 



The greatest desideratum of zoology is the power of examining 

 some specimens of the genus Physeter, or Blackfish, as it is called 

 by the whalers. There is not a bone, nor even a fragment of 

 a bone, nor any part which can be proved to have belonged to a 

 specimen of this gigantic animal to be seen in any museum in Eu- 

 rope. This is the more remarkable as the animal grows to the 

 length of more than fifty feet, is mentioned under the name of the 

 Blackfish in almost all the "Whaling Voyages ; and two specimens 

 of it were examined by Sibbald, having occurred on the coast of 

 Scotland. The only account which we have of the animal on which 

 zoologists can place any reliance is that furnished by Sibbald in his 

 • Little Tractate on Scotch Whales.' 



Boyer, in the * Nova Acta Naturae Curiosorum,' describes a Whale 

 found at Nice which has been thought to be a Blackfish, on ac- 

 count of the position which he assigns to the blower ; but the figure 

 which he gives is so much like a bad design of a Spermaceti Whale 

 (Catodon) in other respects, that it is doubtful to which genus it 

 properly belongs. 



I am aware that in some catalogues of osteological specimens 



