352 



ZIPHIID^. 



In my paper "On the British Cetacea," in the 'Annals of Nat. 

 Hist.' xvii. 82, 1846, I proposed to unite Physeter hidens of Sowerby 

 with Delphinm mieropterus of Cuvier. The French naturalists have 

 since almost universally come to the same conclusion. The difference 

 in the size of the teeth, which they beheve to be sexual, at one time 

 made me revise my first opinion. I now think it probable that they 

 are the same ; at any rate it is a subject that wants further examina- 

 tion, for at present only one male and four females of the two presumed 

 species have been observed by naturahsts. — P. Z. S. 1864, 242. 



The male was found near Brodie House, Elginshire, by James 

 Brodie, who sent a figure and the skull to Mr. Sowerby, who figured 

 it in the ' British Miscellany' under the above name. It was 16 feet 

 long. 



Dr. Fleming and Mr. Jenyns have confounded it with the Bottle- 

 head of Dale (Syperoodon hidens) (see Brit. Anim. p. 36, and Manual 

 B. V. A. p. 44). 



The female caught at Havre on 22nd August, 1828, was about 

 11 feet long; it lived two days out of the water, but it could not be 

 prevailed on to eat anything. They offered it soaked bread and 

 other aUmentary substances. It emitted a low cavernous sound like 

 the lowing of a cow. It was a female, and, from the state of the 

 ossification of the bones, evidently a young animal. The teeth had 

 not as yet pierced the gums. When living, the body was brownish 

 lead-colour, with the exception of the beUy, which was bluish and 

 ash. The body was fusiform, attenuated at each end, the greatest 

 thickness being behind the pectoral fins, in the middle of the distance 

 between them and the dorsal. The head is much higher than broad, 

 and separated from the body by a sensible contraction ; the fore- 

 head much swollen and narrowed gradually, and ending in a beak 

 with a flat and rounded tip. The upper jaw is much shorter and 

 narrower than the lower one. The blowers are on the top of the head, 

 in advance of the orbit, transverse, slightly curved, with the ends 

 directed towards the front, and not towards the tail, as in the genus 

 Hyperoodon. The mouth very broad, entirely deprived of teeth. The 

 tongue is adherent to the lower jaw and toothed on the edge; a 

 similar dentition exists also on the skin of the lower jaw. The eyes 

 large, black, convex, edged with a gelatinous border, in the middle 

 of the side of the head. Earholes very small. The pectoral fin 

 towards the lower part of the chest, oval, elongate, blunt, small. 

 The dorsal fin elevated, falcate, nearly two-thirds of the entire 

 length, lower than the length of its base. Tail triangular, two- 

 lobed, falcate. 



The female from Ostend (1835) had the head attenuated, con- 

 tracted behind. Nose produced, bald, not separated from the fore- 

 head. Eyes moderate. Lower jaw fitting into a groove in the edge 

 of the upper. Teeth few, smaU or rudimentary, in middle of lower 

 jaw, not developed till late. Throat with four parallel slits beneath. 

 Body elongate, rather swollen behind. Pectoral fin low down the 

 side, oval, narrow, small. Dorsal falcate, behind the middle of the 

 body, about two-thirds from the nose. Blowers on the crown, in a 



