SOWEKBY'S WHALE. 431 



CETACEA. PHYSETERIDJJl. 



(ODONTOCETI.) 



Genus Mesoplodon (Gervais). 



Generic Characters.— Teeth ±, placed some distance from front of lower 

 jaw, compressed, inclined forwards, sometimes very greatly developed. Skull 

 with no hollow at base of rostrum, the nares opening directly on the surface ; 

 rostrum very slender. 



SOWERBY'S WHALE. 



Mesoplodon sowerbiensis (De Blainville). 



Specific Character. — Black above, white below, sides marked with ver- 

 micular white streaks. Teeth moderate, visible externally. Flippers and 

 dorsal-fin small, vertebrte 38, ribs 10 pairs. Length of adult 15 to 18 feet. 



Physeter Helens, Sowf.rby, Brit. Miscell., t. L (180 1). 



Delphinus sowerbiensis, Blainville, Nouv. Die. Nat. Hist., IX., 



177. 

 DelphinorMjyicJtusmicrojpterus, F. Cuv., Hist. Nat. des Get., 114 (1836). 

 Mesoplodon sowerbiensis, Gervais, Zool. et Pal. Franc,-., 291 (1859). 



The first example of this species which came under 

 the attention of naturalists was an adult male, sixteen 

 feet in length, which was cast ashore in ISOO on the estate 

 of James Brodie, Esq., of Brodie, Elginshire, the skull of 

 which, along with a drawing of tlie animal, was forwarded 

 by that gentleman to the late Mr. Sowerb}', who figured 

 and described it, in ISOt, in his " British MisceHany," 

 under the name of Physeter bidens. The skull, which is 



