134 Anatomy of Sperm Whale Fetus 
BLoWHOLE. 
The obvious character of the blowhole of the smallest foetus, as 
shown in Pl. XXIII, fig. 1, is by no means shared by the two older 
specimens. In the former, the tissues surrounding the orifice project 
considerably from the level of the general body surface, just at the 
angle which the straight “forehead” makes with the upper surface of 
the head. ‘This is quite well shown on Plate XXIII, and almost 
suggests the snout of a dog or other terrestrial animal. ‘The accom- 
panying text-figures (figs. 1-4) represent this region of the head in 
more magnified views. When examined thus more closely, there is a 
distinct nasal projection to be seen raised above the general surface. 
The bulk of this is seen (text-figs. 3, 4) to lie on the right side. 
When viewed from the upper surface this projection is seen also to be 
more conspicuous on the right side of the head. It is here to be noted 
that it projects further forward. In neither of the two remaining 
foetus have I been able to observe any corresponding elevation of the 
skin. It isa point, perhaps, which requires settlement by observations 
upon the fresh foetus before preservation. In my earlier paper I have 
described and figured the apparent rudiment of a right blowhole 
forming a more or less continuous furrow with the more obvious and 
only permanent blowhole of the adult. This state of affairs is also to 
be seen in the young foetus now under description. The outline of 
the furrow is also much the same. The deep left blowhole shallows 
suddenly but is still, though very faintly,* directed forward gradually 
altering its direction until it passes in a more backward direction, 
where it again becomes deeper, the entire groove having ‘thus much 
the shape that it has in the feetus already described by me. Figs. 1, 
2, show the two sides of the head; the nostril on the right is 
distinctly shorter and straighter than the crescentic left nostril. It 
will be noted that the concavity of the entire blowhole furrow is 
directed as in the Rorquals, and not forwards as in the Delphinide 
and Mesoplodon. It is important to note that the convexity is also 
directed anteriorly in the ally of Physeter, Cogia (Huphysetes). In the 
latter whale the blowhole has lately been figured by Prof. Benham ; 
* So faintly indeed that the median region may be regarded as partly 
defective. 
+ Proc. Zool. Soc.. 1901, p. 109, pl. VIII, figs. 1,2, v. Haast, in the same 
species, according to some—though others agree with this author in his 
description of it as new (Proc. Zool. Soe., 1874, p. 260) under the name of 
Euphysetes pottsi, states that the single blowhole measures two inches, of which 
half inch is on the right side and the much larger half on the left side of the 
median line of the head. ‘There is thus, as it would appear, a closer likeness 
to the embryo Physeter. 
