PSEUDORCA CRASSIDENS. 



•215 



It will have appeared from the above description, that the osteology of the dolphin here 

 treated of bears in not a few respects a close resemblance to that of the killers, but that mixed 

 with this resemblance we have found some features belonging to the ca'ing-whale and the Grampus, 

 while, finally, besides these, certain peculiarities occur unknown in either of the forms mentioned. 

 It might be supposed that something similar might be also said relative to the outward appearance 

 of this dolphin; one glance, however, at the subjoined figure^, which represents at a reduced scale 

 the outline of the plaster- of- Paris model mentioned above of the individual captured at Kiel," 

 will show us, that such is only partly the case, and that the resemblance, more especially 

 with the ca'ing-whale, is, perhaps, still smaller in the outward appearance than in the 



osteology. This may easilj be explained by the fact that some of the external characters that 

 contribute most to give the ca'ing-whale its very peculiar appearance, do not at all depend on, nor 

 are necessitated by, the osteology, and it is in these very peculiarities that the form here 

 described differs completely from the ca'ing-whale. Thus its head has not the immense globular 

 swelling in front, nor the short, but distinct, beak, or rather upper lip, jutting out from this, 

 by which the ca'ing-whale is characterised; but its profile, on the contrary, slopes smoothly 

 from the occiput down to the rounded and blunt snout, or in other words, its head resembles 

 that of an Orca, only that the snout is thicker and shorter. The difference is scarcely less, 

 as far as the back-fin is concerned. The very long, but low back-fin of the ca'ing-whale, 

 of which the vertical height does not equal more than one third of the length, has no re- 

 semblance to the short, bat pointed, and rather high than low fin of the species which is 

 the subject of our examination ; and whereas this fin in the ca'ing-whale, in spite of its length, 



eluded, their length being assumed to be one and a half inches ; for such is their length in the skeleton 

 from Middelfart, and this is so inconsiderably longer than that from Refsnæs, that we run no risk of 

 making a mistake, in supposing these three little bones to be of equal size in both. 



^ This figure which Professor Behn with great readiness has permitted me to have drawn and 

 published is, on the whole, I hope, a faithful copy of the original plaster-of-Paris model; but 

 the back-fin is according to his advice, drawn from one of the two photographs taken of the 

 animal in its fresh condition, the plaster-of-Paris cast not being quite true to nature in this 

 particular; in the outline of the pectoral fin, I have had an insignificant alteration made, according 

 to the paper copy which I had taken of the member in question from the dolphin found at Refsnæs. 



^ See also the figure at the head of the memoir, copied from the photograph of the same specimen. 



