760 PROFESSOR TURNER ON ZIPHIUS CAVIROSTRIS 



The specific identity of these two crania, however, has been called in ques- 

 tion by more than one zoologist. M. Duvernoy regarded the skull from 

 Aresquies as more closely related to the genus Hyperoodon, and named it 

 Hyperoodon Gervaisii* M. Fischer considered it to be another species of the 

 genus Ziphius, and named it Z. Gervaisi ;t and Dr. J. E. Gray has associated it 

 with the genus Epiodon, and termed it Epiodon Desmarestii.\ 



In 1864 the cranium of a Ziphius was found at Lanton, on the shore of the 

 Bay of Arcachon, on the Atlantic coast of France. It has been preserved in 

 the Museum of the Scientific Society of Arcachon, and has been carefully 

 examined by M. Fischer,§ who pronounced it to be specifically identical with 

 Cuvier's specimen. The skull is in a good state of preservation, but the lower 

 jaw is wanting. 



The attention of naturalists in France having thus been particularly directed 

 to the occurrence of one or more species of Ziphius in the adjacent seas, a care- 

 ful examination of zoological literature has been made with the view of ascer- 

 taining if any cetaceans had been described by other naturalists which could be 

 referred to the same genus. MM. Gervais, Duvernoy, and Fischer agree in 

 considering that a cetacean, stranded on the shores of Corsica, and described by 

 M. Doumet in 1842 1| as a Hyperoodon, is really a member of the genus Ziphius. 

 Fortunately the skeleton has been preserved by M. Doumet at Cette, a 

 brief description of which has been published by M. Fischer, in the form of an 

 appendix to his memoir, and a drawing of the cranium has been reproduced by 

 M. Gervais, in plate xxi. of the " Osteographie des C^tacC's/'H now in course of 

 publication, and there can be no doubt that it resembles in its configuration the 

 crania from Fos and Arcachon. Attempts have been made by some naturalists 

 to show that a cetacean, named by Rafinesque Epiodon wrganantus, one described 

 by Risso as Delphinus Desmaresti, and one described by Cocco as Delphinus 

 Philippii, are specimens of the same animal; but, as M. Fischer has pointed out,** 

 the descriptions which have been recorded of these animals are too indefinite to 

 enable the zoologist to state with certainty that they belong to the genus Ziphius. 



In a short paper on Ziphioid Whales, published in " Nature, "tt Professor W. 

 H. Flower, of London, states that a complete skeleton of an adult Ziphius 

 obtained at Villa Franca in 1867, by Professor Haeckel, is mounted in the 

 Anatomical Museum of the University of Jena. But no description has been 

 as yet given of this skeleton. All the five European specimens which have 



* Ann. des Sciences Nat. xv. 1851, p. 49. 



+ Nouvelles Archives du Museum. Paris, .1867, p. 55. 



X Catalogue of Seals and Whales in the British Museum, London, 1866; and Supplement, 1871. 



§ Comptes Rendus, 1866, Aug. 6; and in Nouvelles Archives du Museum. Paris, 1867. 



|| Revue Zool. Soc, Cuvieb, 1842, pp. 207, 208. 



1F Plate xxi., figs. 8 and 9. Paris. 



** Op. cit., p. 58, e.s. 



tt Decemher 7, 1871. 



