PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS. 



THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS. 



PHYSETER. Inferior teeth eighteen to twenty-three on each 

 side of the jaw. Upper jaw broad, elevated, without teeth, or 

 with these short and concealed in the gum. Lower jaw elon- 

 gated, narrow, corresponding to a furrow of the upper, and 

 armed with thick and conical teeth, entering into correspond- 

 ing cavities in the upper jaw. Spiracular orifices united at 

 the upper part of the snout. A dorsal fin in some species, a 

 simple eminence in others. Cartilaginous cavities in the su- 

 perior region of the head, filled with oily matter. 



THE SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS. Lower teeth twenty to twenty- 

 three on each side, recurved and pointed at the extremity. 

 Small conical teeth concealed in the upper gums. Tail narrow 

 and conical. A longitudinal eminence on the back above the 

 anus. Upper part of body blackish or slate-blue, a little spotted 

 with white. Belly whitish. Length forty-five to sixty feet. 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



The grand classical characters which Nature has imprinted 

 on the cetaceous order will, in a philosophical view, vindicate 

 their arrangement among the Mammalia. Their internal 

 structure agrees in every respect with that of the Mammalia of 

 Cuvier, and their external conformation also is in some other 

 parts similar. Being destitute of gills, they breathe by means 

 of lungs, which obliges them frequently to rise to the surface 

 of the water for fresh air. Another great resemblance to the 

 Mammalia is their having warm blood, and being provided 

 with mammae, with which they suckle their young. 



The PHYSETER MACROCEPHALUS inhabits chiefly the South- 

 ern Ocean, although occasionally it is found in the European 

 seas. It is a large fish, generally measuring about sixty feet 

 in length and thirty in circumference at the thickest part of 

 the head, which is blunt and about nine feet in height. Not- 

 withstanding its prodigious length, the snout is formed only 

 by the maxillae on the sides, by the intermaxillae towards the 

 median line, and by the vomer on this line. The intermaxillae 

 project to form the anterior part of the snout. Posteriorly, the 

 right one ascends higher than the left. The spout-hole is sin- 

 gle (in most it is double), and directed towards the left side, 



