32 PROFESSOR OWEN ON INDIAN CBTACEA. 



female 1 foot 4 J inches: the greatest transverse diameter of the trunk in the female is 

 1 foot 2 inches. 



The caudal fin, the shape of which is given in fig. 2, PI. X., measures, in the female, 

 1 foot 7 inches in extreme breadth, and 7 inches across the base of each lateral lobe. 

 Between the dorsal and caudal fins, and nearer the latter, the mid line of tegument is 

 raised into a longisli, very low and obtuse ridge. The vent opens 1 foot 10 inches in 

 advance of the posterior cleft of the tail-fin in the male, and 1 foot 7 inches from 

 the same part in the female. It is 10 inches behind the vertical line di'opped from 

 the back boi'der of the dorsal fin, in the male, and 8 inches behind the same part 

 in the female. The vulva is three inches in advance of the vent ; the prepuce of the 

 male is 9 inches in advance. 



The note, as to colour, accompanying the drawings is — " Above shining black, 



smooth ; beneath jjaler, pinkish, but in one discoloured with blood." The dentition is 

 1—1 



y— a 



= 20. (PI. XII. fig. 1, X, 32). 



The Physeferidce (Cachalots or Sperm-Whales) are characterized by having the open- 

 ing of the mouth inferior in position, not terminal. The largest knowTi species (Pki/sete)' 

 inner ocephalus, Linn.) has a reduced or boss-like representative of the dorsal tegu- 

 mentary fin, and a dorsal longitudinal ridge has been attributed to it near the base of 

 the tail. The soft parts of the head, which project in advance of the jaws or opening 

 of the mouth, form a large obtuse truncate mass. The external blow-hole is reduced 

 by its operculum or flap to a single sigmoid fissure on the left side of the upper and fore 

 part of the head, i. e. at or near to the summit of the truncate end of tlie snout. The 

 functional teeth are limited to the lower jaw, and chiefly to the long sjmphysial part ; 

 those of the upper jaw, when present, are minute and concealed in the thick gum, in 

 fossae which receive the summits of the larger lower teeth when the mouth is closed. 

 The maxiUary bones are so developed as to bound a large concavity, or chamber, for 

 the " spermaceti," at the upper part of the skull in advance of the short brain-case (PI. 

 XIV. fig. 2, 21' ). 



The question put by Cuvier\ whether any large Sperm-Whale may exist, characterized 

 as above, but with a high dorsal fin, with the blow-hole near the forehead on the 

 middle of the head, and with the mandibular rami not united at a long dcntigerous 

 symphysis, still waits a reply from a direct and good observer of such problematic 

 Cachalot. 



The Sperm- Whale towed ashore in the harbour of Port Jackson, New South Wales, 

 December 1849, and referred by Macleay to the species " Catodon australis'"^ had 

 the blow-hole situated at the upper termination of the snout, as in the true Sperm- 

 Whale ^ ; and the dentigerous symphysis of the mandible was more than half the entire 



' Ossemens Fossiles, 4to. vol. v. pt. i. p. 340. 



' ' History and Description of the Skeleton of a new Sperm- Whale, lately set up in the Australian Museum,' 

 hy Wm. S. Wall, Curator. 8vo. Sydney, 1851. ^ lb. p. 11. 



