110 



Thus, in the skeleton of the last found example the rami of the lower 

 jaw are composed of a much thicker substance ; the teeth with which 

 they are studded are longer, stronger, and partly incurved ; the edges 

 of the occipital ridge are more rounded off ; and the vertebra greater 

 in number ; than exhibited in the relative parts of the whale described 

 by Mr. Macleay. The first three deviations may reasonably be attri- 

 buted to the natural effects of age, and the last one to the loss, together 

 with many other small bones, of the lesser caudal vertebrae of the 

 Coogee whale. 



Again, the dorsal fin, placed far behind the middle of the body, in 

 Mr. Krefft's specimen can claim no more appropriate appellation than 

 a hump, in fact resembling that of the sperm whale, whereas in the 

 other animal, the dorsal is described like that of a dolphin ; but, it must 

 be remembered, that this description was taken from a much torn and 

 decayed remnant. 1 



Mr. Krefft, in his notice of this whale, published in the Zool. Proc. of 

 London, gives the total length at 10 feet 8 inches, and the colour as 

 black above and yellowish beneath, and he considers it a distinct species 

 from others hitherto found. 



Inhab. the Australian coast. 



G-EWTTS PHYSETER, 2 LinnaBus. 



Teeth numerous, conical, set wide apart, only in lower jaw ; head 

 immoderately large, equalling nearly one-third of the entire length of 

 the animal, obtuse, truncated in front; nostrils disproportionate in size, 

 the left one being the largest ; nasal and facial bones generally unsym- 

 metrical and distorted ; no true dorsal fin, but in lieu a distinct dorsal 

 hump ; between this and the tail an irregular, ridge-formed protuberance, 

 resembling two or three very small fins ; gullet capacious, in direct 

 contrast to that of the gigantic Eight Whale ; cervical vertebras firmly 

 anchylosed, with the exception of the atlas, which is free ; lower jaw 

 slender and diminutive when compared with the bulk of the head ; 

 symphysis of which, excessively long, nearly two-thirds of the entire 

 length of the ramus ; ribs comparatively slender, their tissue, like that 

 of the mandible, dense and compact ; anterior four pair of ribs attached 

 to the sternum by unossified cartilage ; sternum composed of three 

 pieces ; cavity on the crown of the head immense, protected externally 

 by a tendinous integument, and divided internally into cells by a similar 

 substance, which contain that peculiar oil, liquid when recent, but soon 

 acquiring the concrete or granulated form known as spermaceti. 



The males are much larger than the females. 



1 " The carcass," (the remains of a cetacean, apparently dead for about six weeks) 

 " when I discovered it, had been so much devoured by native dogs and other animals 

 of prey, that no part remained of the external integuments except the flukes of the 

 tail, the dorsal fin, the thumb extremity of the right pectoral fin, the fore part of the 

 top of the head with the gums, and part of the under-jaw with the teeth and lip 

 attached. These parts are all much torn, &c. " p. 37. 



2 <f>vffi)T-fip, a fan to blow the wind, a pair of bellows in allusion to the structure of 

 the nostrils, which are capable of throwing up jets of spray. 



