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VII. On the Organization of the Caaing Whale, Globiocephalus^ melas. 

 By Dr. James Murie, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



E*ad June 27th, 1S67. 



[Plates XXX. to XXXVIII.] 



I. Gexeeal Obsekvations and History of Specimen. 

 1 HE labours of the majority of recent investigators on the Cetacea have mainly been 

 devoted to the skeleton and external characters. These structures form the basis 

 of a truer system of classification which has been engrafted on the previously existing 

 knowledge of the order. Tlius, although it is to the skeleton we may look for the 

 .safest guide in distinguishing generic and, it may be, specific differences, yet a study 

 of the anatomy of the soft textures and organs, if not yielding such valuable results as 

 regards classification, may still tend to the useful in science, and therefore be com- 

 mendable. 



Hitherto only a few monographs, confined to a full description of a single species, 

 have appeared. Those of Professors Sandifort^, W. Vrolik^ Eschricht and Reinhardt* 

 are among the best examples worth citing. But little of a connected nature has been 

 published upon the soft anatomy of Glohiocephahi.s^ , and this so poorly figured that the 

 present attempt to supply the hiatus, it is hoped, will prove an acceptable addition to 

 the literature of the subject*. 



' Ohhiceplmhis, and not GloUoce^hahis, has recently been advocated by Professor Flower, T. Z. S. viii. p. 20. 

 Etymologically neither is strictly appropriate ; that I foUow is known best; usage justifies preference. 



' " Bijdragen Walvisschen," in N. Verb. d. 1. Kl. Nederl. Inst. 1831 (5 plates). 



' " Hyperoodon," in Nat. Verb. Maatsch. Haarlem, 1849 (15 plates). 



* '-On the Greenland Eight ^liale," Ray Soc. 1S66, from the Danish Trans. 1861. 



^ Vide Dr. Jackson, Dissection of the Phocana glohiceps, Bost. Journ. of Nat. Hist. vol. v. p. 160 ; Gulliver, 

 Delphhms melas, P. Z. S. 1853, p. 63 ; and Dr. Williams, G. ehhutmsl. Gray, Chinese Repository, vol. vi. (1838) 

 p. 411. 



' Five years have now elapsed since the present communication was written and read. The above remark, 

 theroforc, necessarily applies to that date ; for in the interval numerous strictly anatomical papers and mono- 

 graphs, both on the present species and other Cetaceans, have been published. 'Witness Dr. Macalister " On 

 some points in the Anatomy of Glohiocephalus svineval," P. Z. S. 1867, p. 477 ; Professor Turner, " A Contribu- 

 tion to the Anatomy of the Pilot Whale," Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1867, p. 104 (also in Journ. of Anat. and Physiol. 

 Nov. 1867, p. 66, and Nov. 1868, p. 117) ; M. Fischer, " On Grampus griseiis," Ann. d. Sci. Nat. 1867, p. 363 : 

 Dr. Burmeister, "Anatomy of Pontoporia blainvilUi," P. Z. S. 1867, p. 484, previously published in the Anales 

 d. Mus. Pub. d. Buenos Aires, tom. i. p. 389, pis. 25-27, also ejusd. Descrip. &c. of Epiodon australe, p. 312, 

 pis. 15-20 ; Drs. Carte & Macalister, " On the Anatomy of Bahfnoptera rostrata," Philos. Trans. 18G8, p. 201 ; 



VOL. VIII. — PART IT. February, 1873. 2 m 



