1. HYPEEOODON. 329 



a generic character ; Wesmael describes the aperture as transverse, 

 linear, slightly cbnvex forward, in the middle, and slightly bent back 

 at the ends ; and this explains, I suspect, the different account that 

 authors have given of this part, some looking at the middle, and 

 others at the ends only. 



Professor Owen, in the ' Catalogue of the Osteological Series in 

 the Eoyal College of Surgeons,' no. 2479, p. 448, has some notes on 

 " the skeleton of the Bident Dolphin, or Bottlenose Whale {Hypero- 

 odon bidens)," which was taken in the Thames, near London Bridge, 

 in the year 1783, and is described and figured by John Hunter in 

 the ' Philosophical Transactions' for the year 1787, pi. 19. 



There is in the same collection the front portion of the lower jaw 

 of an immature animal, no. 2480, with the teeth, and showing the 

 sockets of other teeth. 



The lateral border of each maxiUary bone is developed into a 

 broad and lofty vertical crest, and the hinder border of the same bone 

 to the occipital region is developed iato an occipital crest (I. c. 448). 



Mr. Pearson of the Hull Philosophical Society, Mr. Ball of Dublin, 

 and Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast have sent me various detailed 

 drawings of the head of the Hyperoodons taken off the British and 

 Irish coasts, in their possession ; they, the skeleton at Liverpool, and 

 the French skeleton which has lately been added to the Anatomical 

 Museum of Paris, appear all to belong to one species, and to be the 

 same as Hunter's specimens in the Eoyal College of Surgeons, and 

 the skull figured by Camper and Cuvier. 



Lacep^de called the genus Hyperoodon, and lUiger Urdnodon, 

 because of the teeth on the palate described by Baussard. They 

 have not been observed in other specimens; and lUiger, in his 

 generic character, by mistake, says the two teeth are in the upper 

 jaw (Gen. 143). Professor Eschricht proposed the name of Oheno- 

 cetus, instead of Hyperoodon, which is founded on an erroneous 

 description. The name Ooose Whale, or its translation, is applied to 

 this animal by the inhabitants of most part of the seas where it 

 inhabits, and it was early described as the Ooose-heaked Whale by 

 Pontoppidan (Nat. Hist. Norway, chap. v. 123, 124, fig.). Dr. Jacob 

 calls it Cetodiodon. 



Professor Eschricht, in the ' Danish Transactions,' has given an 

 account of the history of the genus, and of its anatomy, including 

 some admirable detaUs of its brain. He also shows that there are 

 numerous small teeth in the jaws (see figures at pp. 331-335), besides 

 the two large teeth in front. — Danish Acad. Trans, ii. 327, 331, 332, 

 334, 335 ; Ann. Sf Mag. N. H. 1852, ix. 283. 



0. Pabricius described a whale, under the name of Monodon spu- 

 rius, called by the Greenlanders Anarnah, as having two small, 

 conical, slightly curved, blunt teeth prominent in front of the upper 

 jaw; the lower jaw toothless. M. Cuvier (Oss. Foss.) regards it as 

 a Hyperoodon, and he only believed in the existence of one species 

 of the genus. M. F. Cuvier, who misunderstood the description of 

 Chemnitz vrith respect to the teeth of Balcena rostrata, is inclined to 

 unite it to that species, with which it agrees in being aU black, but 



