18 Dr. J. E. Gray on Ziphioid Whales. 



It makes very little difference which we choose; perhaps some 

 day it will be a genus ; but zoologists and comparative anato- 

 mists, or rather osteologists, look at these things with very 

 different eyes: the one only knows the structure of a very limited 

 number of animals; and the other has to arrange and classify 

 all that come under his or others' observation. 



I always understood the name Mesodon or Mesoplodon was 

 given to the genus because the teeth were more or less in the 

 middle of the side of the jaw, which is the case in all the 

 species ; but if Berardius Hectori be refen-ed to it, this species 

 will be the ziphioid whale with the teeth in the middle of the 

 side of the jaw, with its teeth at the end of the jaw. To be 

 sm-e there are examples of such nomenclature as Chrysanthe- 

 mum (the golden flower) leucanthemum (with white flowers) ; 

 but it is quoted as an example to be avoided. 



II. Speaking of Petrorhynchus capensis^ he observes : — 

 " A skull of this animal has been brought from the Cape of 

 Good Hope, of which an excellent description has been pub- 

 lished by Professor van Beneden, under the name of ZipMus 

 indicus'j^'' and he goes on to complain that I retain the name 

 of Petrorhynchus capensis^ " although its specific identity with 

 the last-named previously described specimen is admitted " by 

 myself. 



However good maybe M. van Beneden's " description," his 

 figure is most inaccm'ate, both in form, proportion, and detail ; 

 and I could not have believed that it belonged to the same 

 species, or, scarcely, genus, until M. van Beneden sent me a 

 cast of the beak of his specimen. I do not see how we can 

 use the name indicus for a species which has only been 

 found in the seas around the Cape of Good Hope. The 

 Indian zoologists object to our giving the name of India to 

 the whole of Hindostan ; but what would they say if we used 

 indicus for a species only found in Africa? I believe that 

 the name indicus was given under tlie belief that it was not 

 a native of Africa, but only " brought from the Cape " as an 

 entrepot. I have a further objection : I am informed that 

 in the Indian seas a species of the genus is found which, from 

 the description I have received of it, is distinct. 



Professor Flower says that the skeleton of the " Hyperoodon 

 de Corse " of Doumet is preserved at Cette, and that the skull 

 is figured by M. Gervais in the ' Ostdographie des C(?tac^s,' 

 t. 21. f. 8, 9, which certainly is called '"'• Ziphius de Corse ',^^ 

 but I was not quite sure that they were from M. Doumet's 

 specimen. Mr. Flower, I suppose, has private information on 

 this head from M. Gervais, as M. Gervais's text of these plates 

 has not been published yet. 



