164 ESCHRICHT ON THE 



genera : Catodon and Pki/seter, the former wanting, the latter having, a dorsal fin, according to 

 the statement of Sibbald ; but in the tenth edition of his ' Systema Natiu'æ,' these two genera 

 were combined by Linnæus into one, denoted by the common name of Physeter. Thus, the 

 following species were comprehended in this genus : 



1. Ph. catodon, founded on the account received by Sibbald, of a shoal of 102 small 

 cachalots stranded in the Orkneys. According to this account its character was the following : 

 Ph. dor so impenni, fshda in rostro. 



2. Ph. macrocephalus. By this name the common cachalot was understood, such as 

 it was imagined to be according to the then existing descriptions and figures, especially the one 

 by Clusius, who had stated expressly,^ that its blow-hole was found on the head towards the 

 back, and had not mentioned any dorsal fin. Accordingly its character was to the following 

 effect: Pli. dorso impenni, fistula in cervice. 



3. Ph. microps. Its character was : Ph. dorso spina longa, maxilla superiore longiore, 

 in which it is not easy to recognise Sibbald's " Balæna macrocephala quæ tertiam in dorso 

 pinnam sive sjmiam habet, et dentes in maxilla inferiore arcuatos falciformes" or, in other words, 

 his young cachalot from the Firth of Forth, though it appears from the common name, that the 

 species was founded on this individual. 



4. Ph. tursio. Dorso pinna altissima, apice dentium piano : Sibbald's old cachalot 

 with worn teeth, whose dorsal fin had been compared with the mast standing nearest to the 

 helm. 



This very unfortunate division of the species of cachalots, specimens of which still appeared 

 rather frequently in the eighteenth century, was singularly bewildering in the Linnean period. 

 Whenever a rather large Cetacean, about whose teeth nothing was known, but which was provided 

 Avith a high or very high dorsal fin, was spoken of, it was not immediately thought proper 

 to refer to the genus Orca, among the characters of which the superior height of the dorsal 

 fin was not even mentioned, being only characterised in the following way : " Delpliimts 

 rostro sursum repando dentibus latis serratis" (a special character derived from Ray, which 

 might rather be applied to a shark than to an Orca). In any such case it was, on the con- 

 trary, necessary, first to think of the two Linnean species of cachalot, Physeter microps and 

 Phjseter tursio, the more so as the efforts of the zoologist in this period were almost exclusively 

 directed to refer the animals observed to the species set down in Linnæus's ' Systema 

 Naturæ.' 



We have already seen in the above-mentioned quotation from the ' Kongespeil,' that the 

 killers from ancient times have been known in the north, in reference to their rapacious 

 nature, by the name of "Vogn hvaler." By the same appellation {i. e. Vagn) they were 

 known to the Norwegian fishermen through all the succeeding centuries. Nay, it was quite 

 common to distinguish the "Vagn" Avith lower dorsal fins, from the "Vagn" with higher 

 dorsal fins, by the names of " Lille-Vagn '' (Httle killers), and "Stour-Vagn" (great killers), 

 or " Staurhynning ;" but hardly any one would be able to recognise them by the above- 

 quoted Linnean character of D. orca. When in the year 1762, a drawing and description to- 

 gether with some teeth of a " Stour-Vagn " came into the possession of the learned Bishop 

 Gunnerus, he was perfectly right in stating that no systematic author had treated properly of 



■^ 'Exoticorum,' lib. vi^ cap. 17. 



