24 PEOFESSOR OWEN ON INDIAN CETACEA. 



It was taken off the coast of Madras, and is known to the fishermen there as the " Po- 

 meegra." It is of a very deep plumbeous shining colour, almost black, with a rather 

 lighter shade at the under part of the belly. Mr. ElHot, who was indebted to Mr. Blyth 

 for the specimen, notes it as " a small Cetaceous species;" but the length is not given. 

 The proportions of the snout, of the rictus oris, of the fins, and the form of the forehead 

 (which rises from the base of the snout with a low convexity) are characters in which the 

 D. pomeegra resembles the D. longirostiis, Gray. It chiefly differs in the larger propor- 

 tional size and smaller number of the teeth, viz. ^^^^ = 173. The blow-hole is crescentic, 

 and on the same vertical parallel as the eye. The body enlarges more gradually to the 

 origin of the dorsal fin than in B.forsteri, the greatest circumference being at the fore part 

 of that fin. It is more slender in proportion to its length than any of the above-described 

 fusiform Dolphins belonging to the subsection Stow, Gray. The symphysis mandibulse 

 (PI. VIII. fig. 4} is less than ^th the entire length of the ramus. The hinder half of the 

 palate (ib fig. 2), is widely and deeply channelled on each side. This is, however, but an 

 extension of the modification already pointed out in the hind pai't of the palate of I), ga- 

 damu (PL IV.), and it is subject to varieties in species which, from the brevity of the 

 mandibular symphysis, the great number and small size of the teeth, and the transversely 

 convex rising of the premaxillaries along a considerable part of the rostrum, would be 

 retained among the Belphini as restricted by Dr. Gray. In Belphinus euphrosyne, e. g. 

 (PL VIII. fig. 5: no. 15, p. 251, ' Catalogue of Cetacea in the Br. Mus.'), the hinder middle 

 tract of the bony palate is not longer, deeper, nor more convex transversely than in Steno 

 and Lagenorkynchus, and the lateral channels show the same proportions as in the latter 

 subgenus. The prominent mid tract of the palate is too broad and obtusely convex to 

 be regarded as a " ridge," in any species of Belphinus proper that has come under my 

 observation. 



Sp. dub. Delphinaptekus molagan, Owen. 



Mr. Elliot writes, " I have (or rather ' had,' for I cannot find it) a drawing of a small 

 Cetacean, copied from one made in the Chief Engineer's Office at Madras for Col. 

 Monteith, which was taken from an individual, 32 inches long, of a uniform black 

 colour, with a rounded obtuse head, small mouth, and no dorsal. The Tamil fishermen 

 called it ' Molagan.'" 



Genus Phoc^na, Cuvier. 



Phocjina (Orca, Gray, Reinhardt) brevirostris. Owen. 



Short-snouted Porpoise (skull). (PI. IX. figs. 1, 2, 3.) 



Of this Cetacean I possess only the cranium ; but, as it presents the characters of 

 maturity, it is too small for the species represented by the drawings already described, 



