508 PROF. FLOWER ON THE DELPHINID.E. [NoV 20, 



elongated, the length being to the width as 3 to 2. Pectoral fin of 

 moderate size, narrow and pointed. Dorsal fin situated near the 

 middle of the back, of moderate size, falcate. Head in front of the 

 blowhole high, and compressed anteriorly. The snont truncated. 



This peculiar form was first known by the discovery of a skull, in 

 a subfossil state, in a fen in Lincolnshire, described by Owen under 

 the name of Phoccena crassidens (Brit. Foss. Mamm. & Birds, p. 516, 

 1846). Animals of apparently the same species were afterwards 

 met with in small herds on the Danish coast, and fully described by 

 Reinhardt. In 1864 (see P.Z. S. 1864, p. 420) two skulls, sent 

 from Tasmania, were described by me under the name of Orca 

 {Pseudorcal) mer-idionalis^. Since that time I have had an oppor- 

 tunity of comparing a larger series of skulls, as well as skeletons, 

 from both localities, and believe that the differential characters upon 

 which the latter species was established depend upon the type being 

 of younger age than the only specimen of the northern form then 

 accessible for comparison. In perfectly adult examples of both I 

 have not been able to detect any constant differences. This fact 

 has an important bearing upon the geographical distribution of the 

 Cetacea, as, if confirmed, it indicates an immense range for a species 

 apparently so rare. The length of the animal is about 14 feet. 



GrLOBlCEPs". 



Globicephala, Lesson, Nouv. Tableau du Regne Animal, p. 200 

 (1842). 



Globiocephalus, Gray, Zool. Erebus & Terror, p. 32 (1846). 



Teeth ^--„ confined to the anterior half of the rostrum and corre- 

 sponding part of the mandible, small, conical, curved, sharp-pointed 

 when unworn, sometimes deciduous in old age. Skull broad and 

 depressed. Pterygoid bones of normal form, meeting or very 

 nearly meeting in the middle line (see fig. 1, p. 471). Upper 

 surface of rostrum broad, flat, and concave in front of wares. 

 Premaxillse as wide, or wider, at the middle of the rostrum as 

 at the base, and very nearly or completely concealing the maxillae 

 in the anterior half of this region. Vertebrae: C. 7, D. 1], 

 L. 12-14, C. 28-29 ; total 58 or 59. Bodies of the anterior five or 

 six cervical vertebrae united. Length of the bodies of the lumbar 

 and anterior caudal vertebrae about equal to their width. Pectoral 

 limb very long and narrow, the second digit the longest, and having 

 as many as 12 or 13 phalanges, the third shorter (witli 9 phalanges), 

 the first, fourth, and fifth very short. Fore part of the head very 

 round, in consequence of the great development of a cushion of fat 



' It should be noted that the figure of the upper surface of the skull at 

 p. 421 has accidentally not been reversed by the artist, and hence the distortion 

 characteristic of the heads of the Delpliinidce is represented the wrong way. 



- I have ventured to substitute this form of the word, originally proposed 

 by Cuvier in a specific sense, hut no longer used as such {melas having the 

 priority), for Lesson's more cumbersome, hybrid term. It is certainly an 

 adjective form, but this does not appear to be a bar to its being used 

 generically. 



