Mr. J. Couch on a specimen of Phocaena melas. 371 



XXXIX. — Observations on a specimen of the Black or Leading 

 Whale, Phocaena melas, taken on the coast of Cornwall, By 

 Jonathan Couch, F.L.S., &c. 



[With a Plate.] 



However frequent maybe the capture of the Black or Lead- 

 ing Whale in the more northern parts of the United King- 

 dom, opportunities for examining this somewhat remarkable 

 species have not often occurred to naturalists ; and those who 

 have had occasion to publish a figure have for the most part 

 been reduced to the necessity of copying, by which means it 

 has happened that the representations of the species in even 

 the most respectable works are found to be incorrect in some 

 important particulars. On this account, and because the spe- 

 cimen now to be described was taken at a great distance from 

 its most usual haunts, it is hoped that the following notice 

 will be acceptable to the scientific public. The length in a 

 straight line was 20 feet, but measured along the curve, from 

 the upper lip to the end of the tail, 22 J feet ; breadth of the tail, 

 4 feet 9 inches ; from the base of the dorsal fin to the middle of 

 the belly, as it lay, and consequently half round, 5 feet 8 inches. 

 Height of the dorsal fin, 14 inches ; measured over the back 

 from the margin of the tail to the dorsal fin, 1 2 feet 9 inches ; 

 length of the base of this fin, 3 feet 5 inches. The head is small 

 in proportion to the body ; the forehead projecting in front, 

 wide and remarkably rounded ; a depression between the front 

 and upper lip ; angle of the mouth ascending, the lower jaw 

 a little shorter than the upper ; tongue large and fleshy ; teeth 

 small, round, in height from the gums scarcely exceeding one- 

 third of an inch, standing separate, and inclined forward; 

 those above rather the stoutest, the whole closing alternately 

 between each other; front of the upper jaw having four cavi- 

 ties in the substance of the gum to receive corresponding 

 teeth of the lower jaw. As well as could be counted, there 

 were 20 teeth in each jaw. The eye small, narrow, a little 

 above and slightly before the line of the angle of the mouth. 

 Breathing-hole on the hinder part of the head, in a depres- 

 sion, with the valve closed circular, the curve backward. Pec- 

 toral fin 4 feet 9 inches in length, becoming very narrow, 

 pointed, and directed backward ; in shape somewhat like the 

 wing of a swallow. Body large, round, plump ; compressed 

 through the posterior third of its length, which is ridged on 

 its dorsal and ventral aspect, and growing rapidly, depressed 

 at the tail, which organ is cut in a segment at the middle. 

 The animal, a male, with a long furrow or channel from the 

 vent forward along the belly, enclosing the penis, which is 



