PROFESSOR OWEN ON INDIAN CETACEA., By) 
length of the ramus (48 inches to 92 inches)'. The blubber-portion of the carcase 
having been removed previously to the articulator’s arrival on the spot?, no observa 
on the condition of the dorsal fin or hump was made. 
Cuvier characterizes the “Cachalot macrocéphale” (Catodon macrocephalus, Axt., 
Physeter macrocephalus, Linn.) as having the back provided with a slightly raised 
prominence, which some have called “ fin,” others “ longitudinal ridge”, others “ hump” 
or “tubercle” (loc. cit. p. 338): “Il a une dorsale trés-peu saillante vers I arriére 
du dos, quelquefois réduite 4 une protubérance, ou 4 deux ou trois” (ib. p. 339). In the 
*Regne Animal, Cuvier says, “Il n'a qu'une éminence calleuse au lieu de nageoire 
dorsale” (tom. i. p. 294, ed. 1829). In the judicious criticism on the alleged or nominal 
species of Sperm-Whales, in the ‘Ossemens Fossiles, Cuvier asks, “ Existe-t-il en outre 
des Cachalots 4 haute dorsale? en existe-t-il dont lévent soit percé pres du front sur le 
milieu de la téte? en existe-t-il ou les branches de la machoire inférieure ne soient pas 
réunies sur la plus grande partie de leur longueur en une symphyse cylindrique? Voila 
ce qui reste a chercher, ce qui reste a prouver autrement que par des figures tracées par 
des matelots. Ce nest quapres que des hommes éclairés auront observé ces étres 
avec soin, et en auront déposé les parties osseuses dans des collections ott elles puissent 
étre vérifiées par des naturalistes, qu'il sera possible a la critique de les admettre dans 
le catalogue des animaux” (tom. cit. p. 340). 
As regards large Cachalots these questions, as I have remarked, still wait their solu- 
tion. In the small Cetacean called ‘‘ Wonga,” of the seas washing the eastern coast of 
the Indian peninsula, we have, however, a satisfactory reply to them. 
In it we possess a member of the Physeterida—a Cachalot in fact—though small, in 
which the dorsal is lofty, with the usual shape of such well-developed fin in Cetacea, in 
which the blow-hole is not terminal but near the forehead, and in which, as will pre- 
sently be shown, the mandibular rami are united by a symphysis of less than half the 
length of the “rami.” The inferior mouth, unsymmetrical blow-hole, and the second 
tegumentary production in form of the dorsal ridge, shown in the careful drawings by 
the native artist, significantly indicated the family affinities of the ‘“‘ Wonga:” the 
enlightened attention and care bestowed by Mr. Elliot on this seldom-studied branch of 
zoology has enabled me to place this conclusion on unequivocal grounds, through his 
transmission, with the drawings, of the skuil of one of the individuals figured, 
To the study and comparison of this precious evidence I have devoted full attention : 
it is figured, half the natural size, in Plates XII., XIII., & XIV. fig. 1. Its peculiarity 
of form is extreme: perhaps no other Cetacean skull has yet been observed in which the 
cranial so greatly preponderates over the rostral part. In the degree in which this pro- 
portion prevails in the skull first made known by De Blainville as of the Cachalot which 
he called Physeter breviceps*, and in that subsequently described by Macleay* under 
1 Op. cit. p. 9. ? Op. cit. p. 4. 
2 Annales Frangaises et Etrangéres d’Anatomie et de Physiologie, tom. ii. (Svo, 1838) p. 335: “Sur les 
Cachalots.” + Op. cit. 
VOL. VI.—PART I, F 
