
HALE—PIGMY SPERM WHALE IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA 533 
In the female calf from Port Victoria the body is relatively plumper than in 
the adult, being less than four times as long as deep; the origin of the dorsal fin 
is slightly further behind the middle of the length. This fin is faleate (text fig, 2 
and is three times as long as wide while the pectoral limb (text fig. 4) is a little 
shorter in proportion to its width than in the adult and is also shorter in relation 
to the total length of the animal. The snout as seen from the side exhibits quite 
considerable difference in shape, curving upwards and forwards from the distal end 
of the mandible much more obliquely than in the mother (see pl. xiv). 
It is generally considered that the speeimens of Kogia so far secured in both 
northern and southern hemispheres represent only one species; from the litera- 
ture there is little or no evidence for the separation of two or more forms on 
external or skeletal characters, 
There are few good illustvations of the exterior of Kogia, Accordine to most 
published descriptions, but not always to the illustrations, the origin of the dorsal 
fin geeurs at, or a little posterior to, the middle of the total length of the animal 
An exception may be the New South Wales example recorded by Krefft (1865, 
p. 708, fig. 1) in which the total length is given as 10 ft. 8 in., the distance before 
dorsal fin as 5 ft. 3 in.; Krefft's figure, however, shows the fin as arising well hehind 
the middle of the length. 
Allen (1941, pp, 28-29) notes that in a large male from Massachnsetts the 
dorsal fin was low and narrow while in an adult female from Virginia it was nearly 
twice the size. In Allen's female the height of this fin was distinctly more than 
one-half of its basal length and at least one-fifteenth of the total length of the 
animal; the aforementioned author remarks that future observations may show 
whether or uot this is a normal sexual difference. The female from Madras figured 
by Owen (1866, pl. x-xi) similarly has a high dorsal, and this applies also to the 
example from Ceylon illustrated by Pearson (1920, pl. i; sex not given). 
Of southern examples the data previously published refer to unsexed 
material, Oliver (1922, p. 567, pl. ii, fig. 3) illustrates an example from Wanganui, 
New Zealand, with the dorsal fin very little smaller than in the aforementioned 
northern females; he notes that at least eleven specimens of Kogia ‘‘have been 
cast ashore in New Zealand during the past 40 years.’’ The last-named author says 
of another New Zealand example, ‘‘Dorsal fin small, faleate.’’ In the New South 
Wales specinien deseribed by Wall (1851) it seems to haye been much as in the 
Port Victoria female, while the poor illustration of Krefft (1865, fie. 1) shows this 
fin as low and rounded. 
As noted above, in both the adult female and female calf from Port Vietoria 
the height of the dorsal fin is, at most, one-third of the length of the fin; further, 
the height is equal to only about one-thirtieth of the total length of the animal, 
