PROFESSOE OWEN ON INDIAN CETACEA. 31 



The resemblance to the Porpoise was suggested by the shortness of the snout ; but 

 this is more obtuse, and is not marked off ii-om the rest of the head by any sudden 

 narrowmg. More important differential characters suggest the affinity of the " Wonga" 

 to a family of toothed Whales, distmct from the Belpkinidw. 



The first and most important of these is the mferior position of the mouth, beyond 

 the small opening of which the blunt rostrum extends forward from 4 to 6 mches. 

 The blow-hole (PI. X. fig. 2) is suigle, but is not medial m position or symmetrical in 

 .shape ; it is m advance of the eye, opens to the left of the mesial plane, is propor- 

 tionally larger than in the Porpoise, and is crescentic, but curves obliquely from the 

 mid line outward and backward, with the convexity turned forward and to the left, and 

 the angles or " cresses" dfrected backward and to the right. The anterior angle is 

 5 inches from the end of the snout. The eye is small; the palpebral orifice is be- 

 tween 7 and 8 inches from the end of the snout, and opent: in the upper half of the 

 head, seen in profile, near the boundary dividing it from the lower half From the 

 vertical line bisecting the eye to the end of the muzzle the head forms a cone witli 

 a blunt apex, less obtuse when viewed from above (fig. 1) than from the side (fig. 2), 

 where the lower slope is interrupted by the small "rictus oris:" this is formed by a 

 kind of semicfrcular excavation of the under part of the snout, into which the short 

 dentigerous part of the lower jaw fits, like a box in its lid. The length of the " rictus" 

 in a side view, straight line, is 2\ inches in the male, 2 niches in the female. From the 

 the parallel of the eye, the head, as it recedes, enlarges less rapidly; and the trunk 

 continues gradually to expand to about midway between the end of the snout and the 

 base of the tail. The widest part of the trunk is a little more forward in the male than 

 m the female. 



According to the figures, the pectoral fin becomes free 1 foot 1 inch behind the 

 snout in the male, and 1 foot 4 inches in the female ; but there may be some inaccuracy 

 here. The length of tlie fin in both is 1 foot ; its extreme breadth is 4^ inches in the 

 male, 4 inches in the female : its line of attachment is in the lower thfrd of the trunk, 

 as seen in profile. The dorsal fin is well developed, subfalcate m shape ; its anterior 

 border is halfway between the snout and the base of the taU. The length of the base 

 of the fin is 10 inches in the male, 9 inches in the female: the height of the fin. 

 vertically at its back part, where the apex cm-ves back a little beyond the basal attach- 

 ment, is 7 inches m both. The anterior border of the fin is slightly convex ; its length, 

 m a straight line, is 1 foot. 



The body, as has been said, gradually expands to near the origin of the dorsal fin, 

 and thence contracts to the setting-on of the caudal fin : here the taU, or tail-end of the 

 trunk, measures 3^ to 4 inches in vertical and nearly 2 inches in transverse diameter. 



The expansion of the trunk is pretty equal in every dii-ection towards the dorsal fin, and 

 the upper surface gives the appearance of the fore part being subdepressed : the diminu- 

 tion beyond the dorsal is more rapid fi-om side to side than from above; downward. 

 The greatest vertical diameter of tlie trunk is, in the male, 1 foot 6i inches, in the 



