PYGMY SPERM WHALE PIERS. 99 



copied as depicting the cranial characters of this species. De 

 Blainville's drawing, made from a single skull fro m Cape of Good 

 Hope, in the Paris Museum, was not a perfect one, as the origin- 

 al lacked some rather important parts, particularly about the 

 maxillary notches, and the details of the parts present are not 

 very well represented. The ear-bones (periotic and tympanic 

 bones) were without doubt missing in de Blainville's specimen, 

 as is very often the case with cetacean skulls; and these ex- 

 tremely interesting and important bones have never, I believe, 

 before been figured, and they are difficult to describe without 

 drawings. Both the right and left ear-bones are complete in 

 our specimen and the left one is figured, in opposite side-views, 

 on my plate, on a scale very slightly less then one-third 

 natural size. (See plate, page 101.) 



Diagnosis. — The species may be readily recognized by its pro- 

 truding snout, bluntish head which is not truncate, the toothless 

 upper jaw, and toothed lower jaw having about fourteen sharp 

 teeth on each side, blowhole on the top of the head, and the 

 presence of a dorsal fin. The skull may be known by its unsym- 

 etrical and concave dorsal region, and the dental characters 

 referred to. 



External characters. — Head contained six times in total length. 

 Snout projecting beyond the mouth; the face only very slightly 

 flattened below extremity of snout. Eye much above angle of 

 mouth. Blowhole on top of head and very slightly to left side; 

 shape crescentric. Lower jaws very narrow in front; no teeth in 

 upper jaw; fourteen on each side of lower jaw. Dorsal fin 



present, small and low, falcate. Pectorals rather small, pointed. 

 Peduncle of tail strongly keeled above and below. 



Viewed dorsally, the snout is moderately sharp; viewed laterally, 

 the front of the head is blunt, the mouth projecting 3 inches be- 

 yond a vertical line from the anterior end of the mouth. Mouth 

 very narrow, capable of being opened to an angle of about 70°; 

 tongue short, its extremity only coming to 3 ins. of end of mandible: 

 transverse diameter of throat, 2.15 ins. Eye set rather high, 

 about midway between dorsal and ventral lines, and slightly 

 posterior to the posterior end of mouth opening. The single 

 external oriface of the blowhole is on the upper part of the head 

 (not anteriorly as in Physeter), and it is somewhat crescentic, 

 with the convexity to the front, and its transverse length is 2.45 



