The Zoologist — March, 1873. S423 



Division I. Nostrils longitudinal, parallel, or diverging, each 

 covered with a valve, the right one often oUiterated. 



Sub-Order III. Physeteroidea. 



Head blunt; teeth many in lower jaw, fitting into holes in the 

 gums of the upper ones. Cervical vertebras more or less 

 anchylosed. 



Fanoil}^ IV. Catodontid.e. — Head very large, compressed, trun- 

 cated in front. Mouth inferior, linear. Pectoral fin short, broad, 

 truncated. Dorsal hump rounded. .Skull elongate; crown con- 

 cave, surmounted by a high perpendicular wall, formed of the 

 doubled-up maxillae and occipital bones. 



1. Catodon.— Atlas vertebra transverse, nearly twice as broad as 

 high. Central canal subtrigonal, narrow below. Skull nearly two- 

 thirds the entire length of the body. 



It has been said I should use the name Physeter for this genus 

 by modern biologists, who seem to pay more attention to what a 

 specimen is called than to what it is. Artedi established two genera, 

 Catodon for the sperm whale and Physeter for Tursio. Linngeus, 

 in his twelfth edition, united the two genera into one under the 

 name of Physeter. Now that they are separated I think that Artedi's 

 old name ought to be used. 



1. Catodon macrocephalus (Sperm Whale), Gray, Cat. Seals and 

 Whales, p. 202, fig. 54. Physeter macrocephalus. Flower, Trans. 

 Zool. Soc, vi. p. 309, t. 55—61, and woodcuts.— Inhabits tropical 

 seas, and accidentally temperate ones. Teignmouth; Gessner, 

 1532. Whitstable Bay, 1794. Scotland ; Sibbald. Thurso, 1863 

 (skeleton Brit. Mus.) 



Family V. Physeterid^.— Head depressed, rounded in front. 

 Blowers linear (often only the one on the left side open), at the 

 back of the forehead. Mouth small, inferior, rounded. Dorsal fin 

 compressed, falcate. Pectoral fin elongate, falcate. Skull short; 

 crown concave; hinder part of the wall formed by the maxillaries, 

 and divided, as it were, into two subequal parts by a central bony 

 ridge, which is more or less twisted towards the right side. Upper 

 jaw toothless. Atlas and cervical vertebrae all united into a solid 

 mass. 



