312 



DELPHINIDiE. 



The skeleton in the Museum of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, 

 no. 2521, is thus remaxked on by Professor Owen : — " Besides the 

 7 cervical, which are here anchylosed, there are 56 vertebrae, 12 of 

 which support moveable ribs, and 6 of these joia the sternum. The 

 26th vertebra begins to have hsemapophyses attached to its centrum." 

 — Cat. Osteol. Series, p. 436. 



In the skuU of the female, no. 2522, " the rudimentary tusks, 

 two in number, are exposed in their formative cavities, from which 

 they do not emerge in this sex." In the skuU of a large male, 

 no. 2523, the left tusk is developed : the abortive right tusk is dis- 

 played in its alveolus. In no. 2525 it is the left tusk that is 

 abortive. 



Professor G. VroKk describes and figures the skuU of a Narwhal 

 with two horns. — Bijdragen tot de Dierlc. iii. 21. t. 



Dr. Fleming gives a description of a male specimen found en- 

 tangled among the rocks at the entrance of the Sound of Weesdale, 

 in Zetland, on the 27th Sept. 1808. " It was 12 feet long. The head 

 is about one-seventh of the total length ; the forehead rose suddenly 

 and then proceeded nearly in a horizontal direction for a few inches, 

 when it became slightly elevated. ' The fore part of the head is 

 rounded, and when viewed from before resembled that of a bull. The 

 head was separated from the body by a slight depression. The body 

 was thickest a few inches beyond the pectoral fins. There is a 

 slight elevation on the back immediately above the genitalia, which 

 continued to within a few inches of the division of the tail. On the 

 belly is a ridge extending from the anus to the tail ; on both sides of 

 the body there were like ridges, similar to those on the back and 

 belly, which give the end of the body a quadrangular form. The 

 mouth pointed in front, the upper lip extending a little beyond the 

 under. The eyes behind the angle of the mouth, nearly under the 

 blowhole, pupil black, iris chestnut, sclerotic coat white. Pectoral 

 fins 30 inches from the snout, 15 inches long and 6 broad. There 

 was one tooth on the left side of the upper jaw, pointing a little 

 downwards; the tooth was 27 inches long, and base inserted in 

 socket 12 inches. The animal was dusky black, above variegated 

 with still darker not very apparent spots ; the belly white ; the sides 

 with numerous oblong horizontal spots. The skin smooth and glossy. 

 The blubber or spick was about 1| inch thick. There was a mass 

 of fat like a cushion which rested on the forehead, as if calculated 

 to defend the animal from bruises on that part." — Mem. Wern. 

 Soc. 1811, i. 139. 



Pirst recorded as found in Britain by Vulpius (Obs. Med. 376. 

 1. 18), near the Island of May (insulam Mayam), in June 1648. One 

 was observed on the 15th of Pebruary 1800, near Boston, Lincoln- 

 shire (see Lacepdde, Hist. Nat. Get. 159. t. 5. f. 2, and Mem. Wern. 

 Soc. i. 147; Fleming, B. A. 37). 



Scoresby gives a very good account of this animal (Arct. Reg. 

 i. 131). The best figures are those of Scoresby, 1. 15 ; then Sowerby, 

 Brit. Misc. ; but this has a second horn erroneously added, which 

 was not in the original drawing. Bonnaterre's figure is far too ven- 



