3. KOGIA. 215 



Mr. Couch thinks he has seen this whale " on the coast of Corn- 

 wall. It also occurred in May 1850. The fin was not less than 

 7 feet high." He further observes, " This species is supposed to be 

 the whale sometimes seen on the Cornish coast saUing rapidly along 

 at a uniform elevation in the water, with its slender but elevated fin 

 above the surface white. The body is lineated below," — Couch, 

 Com. Fauna, 7. 



In the Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal CoUege of Surgeons, 

 the truncated whale's-teeth are called " the teeth of the High-finned 

 Cachalot, P. Tursio ? " p. 171, n. 1189-1194. And the small jaws 

 of the Sperm Whale are called " the Lesser Cachalot (Physeter Gato- 

 don, Linn.)." 



See also Physeter sulcatum (Lacep. Mem. Mus. iv. 475), from a 

 Japanese drawing, with the dorsal fin over the pectoral and the jaws 

 grooved. 



The Black-fish, or Baloena mierocephahts of Sibbald, the Physeter 

 microps, which I thought formerly might be the Ardluk of 0. Fabri- 

 cius, but which Eschricht after much consideration feels assured is 

 the female Delphinus Orca, has entirely escaped the research of 

 Eschricht and all other writers on the "Whales of the North Seas. 



The greatest desideratum of zoology is the power of examining 

 some specimens of the genus Physeter, or Black-fish as it is called 

 by the .whalers. There is not a bone, nor even a fragment of a bone, 

 nor any part that can be proved to have belonged to a specimen of 

 this gigantic animal to be seen in any museum in Europe. This is 

 the more remarkable as the animal grows to the length of more than 

 50 feet, and is mentioned under the name of the Black- fish in almost 

 all the Whaling Voyages ; and two specimens of it were examined 

 by Sibbald, having occurred on the coast of Scotland. The only 

 account which we have of the animal, on which zoologists can place 

 any reliance, is that furnished by Sibbald in his little tractate on 

 Scotch Whales. 



The Baloena minorilms in inferiore niuueiUa tantum dentatis (Sibb. 

 Phal. 24), on which Linnaeus established Physeter Catodon, and 

 Fleming the Catodon Sihbaldii, is evidently a Beluga. 



3. KOGIA. 



Head moderately short, very broad, rounded behind and sub- 

 tetrangular in front, where the base is broad, and the snout trun- 

 cated, slightly reflexed and marginated at the extremity. The blow- 

 hole single, externally large, situated at the base of the forehead 

 near the middle of the head. Snout, turned: up at the margin. 

 Pectoral fin broad, truncated, with 5 fingers, first and fifth shortest, 

 second longest, third and fourth gradually shorter. Dorsal fin tri- 

 angular ; front edge rather convex, at an angle of 45° ; hinder edge 

 concave, perpendicular. Caudal triangular, terminal edge sinuated. 

 SkuU broad, triangular; beak short, broad, flat above; hinder 

 part very broad, semicircular, and surrounded by a bony ridge formed 

 by the maxillaries. This sperm-cavity is longitudinally divided by a 



