Occurrence of the Bottlc-Kosed or Beaked Whale. 43 



specimen, and of more than two in Eschriclit's animal, they 

 were so small, and their attachment to the gum so insecure, 

 that they could have had no function. In Sowerby's whale 

 {Mesoplodon hidens), both Gervais and Eeinhardt have 

 described rudimentary teeth, other than the two well-known 

 mandibular teeth of this animal. In a species of Mcso'plodon 

 described by Von Haast, rudimentary denticles were seen. 

 In Burmeister's Ziiohius, and in a Ziphius cavirostris examined 

 by Gervais, a similar arrangement was observed. It follows, 

 therefore, that, in all the genera of the Ziphioid sub-family 

 which have been most completely studied, rudimentary 

 functionless denticles occur in addition to that pair of man- 

 dibular teeth which usually assume considerable dimensions, 

 though in Ryperoodon these teeth, seeing that they do not 

 pierce the gum, are also functionless. The dentition of the 

 Ziphioids so far, therefore, as regards the number of tooth 

 pulps, is as complete, or almost as complete, as in the 

 Delphinidee, although they do not, with the exception of one 

 pair of mandibular teeth, attain a similar development. 



Another point which especially requires attention, is the 

 shape of the head and skull. It is well known that the late 

 Dr J. E. Gray described and figured^ a cranium in the British 

 Museum, which had been obtained from the Orkneys, as a 

 distinct species by the name of Hyper oodon latifrons, and 

 subsequently he gave it the generic name of Lagenocetus. 

 This skull was distinguished from those of E. rostratus 

 usually found in museums, by having the maxillary crests 

 much higher than the frontal crest, and so much bcoader and 

 thicker that they almost met mesially. Although many 

 zoologists accepted H. latifrons as a good species, yet, the 

 eminent cetologists, Professors Gervais ^ and Eschricht,^ were 

 not satisfied that it was distinct, and regarded the great de- 

 vel-opment of the maxillary crests merely as a mark of age, 

 and of the male sex. Dr Gray, in his various controversial 

 writings on this subject/ was in the habit of referring to the 



1 Zoology of Voyage of " Erebus " and "Terror," 1846, p. 27, PI. iv. 

 '^ Osteograpliie des Cetaces. 



3 On the Gangetic Dolphin— Ann. and Mag. Xat. Hist, 1852, vol. ix. 

 •* On Hyperoodoih to i/roHS— Annals of Nat. Hist., second series, vol. ix., 

 p. 407. Catalogue of Seals and Whales. 



