420 MR. W. H. FLOWER ON A NEW (Nov. 8, 
gigantic Delphinoids, Catodon or Sperm- Whale, is represented only 
by an atlas, and the lower jaw of a very young individual, at Leyden, 
and, if I remember rightly, an atlas at Brussels. There is, however, 
in a church at Scheveningen, in Holland, a skull, in a very imperfect 
condition, of one of these animals, washed ashore near that place in 
the year 1617. 
2. On A New Species or Grampus (ORCA MERIDIONALIS) FROM 
Tasmanta. By Witt1Am Henry Fiower, F.R.S., F.R.C.S., 
ETC., CONSERVATOR OF THE Museum or THE Roya Cot- 
LEGE OF SURGEONS. 
The Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons has lately received 
from Mr. W. L. Crowther, of Hobart Town, two skulls belonging to 
an animal there called “Blackfish,” a term, it may be remarked, 
which has been applied by sailors to many different species of Ceta- 
ceans. On showing them to Dr. Gray, whose extensive experience 
in regard to this order is well known, he immediately pronounced 
them to belong to a species unknown to him. At the same time he 
pointed out their resemblance to the skull found ina semifossil state 
in Lincolnshire, described and figured by Professor Owen under the 
name of Phocena crassidens*, to which species Professor Reinhardt 
of Copenhagen has recently referred a Cetacean still existing in the 
North Seat. Ihave since had an opportunity of examining the 
extensive collections of skeletons and crania of Cetacea in the Mu- 
seums of Leyden, Louvain, and Brussels, and have not found in 
them any similar specimen. 
In reply to some queries respecting the animal from which the 
skulls were obtained, which I addressed to my esteemed corre- 
spondent Mr. Crowther (who, besides being one of the leading me- 
dical practitioners in the colony, is also the owner of several whaling- 
vessels), that gentleman writes as follows :— 
“«¢ Blackfish.’—This fish is in reality a miniature Sperm- Whale 
in its habits, &c., feeding upon the same food (‘ squid’), geographi- 
cally occupying the same localities as the Sperm-Whale, following 
the great equatorial currents so long as they retain their warmth, 
and met with in the greatest numbers in the southern hemisphere at 
those points where the equatorial meet the polar currents, eddies 
being formed in which no doubt the squid collects. Iam not aware 
that the Blackfish preys upon anything but squid; it is essentially 
gregarious, countless hordes being met with where food is abundant. 
Length 12 to 15 feet; diameter 3 to 4 feet. Colour, black on the 
back and sides, lighter below. Males much larger than the females. 
Head obtuse, after the fashion of the Sperm-Whale. Pectoral fins 
small. Dorsal fin hook-shaped, and situated about two-thirds along 
the body towards the tail. Weight two to three tons, the former 
about the average. Oil, the only kind that will mix with sperm.” 
* A History of British Fossil Mammals and Birds: 1846, p. 516. 
+ “ Pseudorca crassidens, et for den Danske fauna nyt Hyaldyr” (Seerskilt 
Aftryk af Oversigten over d. K. D. Vid. Selsk, Forhandl. Noy. 1862). 
