424 CETACEA. 



capabilities, and I am informed that there was once a factory for extracting the oil 

 aljout four miles below Agra. 



I am not aware that any use is made of the skin ; yet, as this resembles the 

 liide of other dolphins, it seems to be suitable for purposes where it is desirable to 

 iise leather of great toughness and durability. 



Species.— Blji\\ not only informed Eeinhardti that he distinguished two species 

 of Platanista — one common in the Indus and but rarely found in the Ganges, the other 

 entirely wanting in the Indus, — but he even went so far as to describe the Indus 

 dolphin as a new species, and later, in 1863' he was still inclined to believe that two 

 species might be found to exist in the Ganges ; and Eschricht' also, in 1851, held a 

 similar opinion. 



Blyth's type of Platanista indi'^ had lost the maxillary crests. It is the skull 

 evidently of an adult individual, as the teeth are reduced to hard osseous cubes. Its 

 total length from the inferior border of the foramen magnum to the tip of the snout, 

 which is very partially broken, is 19'50 inches. The snout anteriorly has a slight 

 downward curve. The sockets of the posterior teeth are obliterated above and 

 below, so that it is impossible to count the teeth. This skull corresponds well 

 with the skulls of ascertained males of the Gangetic dolphin, and the snout and 

 teeth have the same characters. 



Among Sir A. Burnes' drawings'^ there is a figure of the Platanist of the Indus, 

 and it represents an animal with all the characters of the Platanist of the Ganges, 

 Avith the neck well defined and corresponding much to my Plate XXV. The draw- 

 ing does not reveal any character specifically different from that of the Ganges 

 Platanist. The specimen measures 7 feet long. 



One of the characters assigned by Blyth to P. indi, and which would appear to 

 Iiave been the character to wliich he attached most importance, was the depth of the 

 jaws with the teeth, which "measured in the middle of their length 3'25 inches to 

 gangetica 1'75 inch." This depth of the jaw, however, is not distinctive of the Indus 

 dolphin, because a mature female from the Hughli has a depth at the middle of the 

 snout of 3'50 inches, and another and shghtly larger skull, probably of the female 

 sex, has a depth at the middle of the jaw of 4'36 inches. A male skull from the 

 Hughli of the same size and age as the type of P. indi, which I consider to have 

 belonged also to the male sex, has a depth at the middle of the jaw of 3"40 inches ; 

 so that this character selected by Blyth falls to the ground, and if the Indus dolphin 

 is distinct, the features that distinguish it must lie in some other organ or part. 



There is no information about the sex on Sir A. Burnes' drawing, or is 

 the animal so posed as to display the external generative organs ; but Blyth at 

 that time believing that his specimens of the Gangetic Platanist were males, and 



' Ann. and Mag., Nat. Hist., vol. ix (1852), p. 291. 



2 Cat. Mamm. As. Soc. Mus., 1863, p. 92, footnote. 



3 Loc. cit. 



^ .Journ. As. Soc, Bengal, vol. xxviii, 18.59, p. 493 ; Cat. Mamm, .\s Soc. Mus.. 18G3, p. 92. Jerdon : Mamm. 

 Ind. 1867, p. 159. Gra.y : Cat. Seals and ^Vhales, British Museum, 1866, p. 221. 

 * Deposited in the As. Soc., Calcutta. 



