28 



BRITISH FOSSIL CETACEA 



respecting which I may first remark that each of such teeth is lodged in an elongate 

 fissure at the fore part of the alveolar border, as in Ziphius Layardi. The mid-cartilage, 

 supported by the vomer and continued from the prefrontal septum, does not become ossified, 

 and consequently the bony rostrum appears to be excavated above. This character is 

 signified, according to its true value, by the specific term cavirostris, appUed by Cuvier 

 to a form or species of Ziphius still represented in European seas. Nor does the dental 

 modification appear to me in any measure to justify generic distinction. To the trouble 

 of cetologists, however, the Ziphius cavirosfris of Cuvier has to sustain, not only the 

 generic term Epiodon, put upon it by Rafinesquc, but also those of llderodon (by Lesson), 

 of Dioplodon (by Gervais), of Alainia (by Gray), &c. 



DELPHiNORnYNCHUs, De Blainville} — Tiiis name was imposed upon a Cetacean, 

 15 feet in length, stranded at Havre, September, 1825, having a rostriform termination 

 of the upper jaw, Avithout conspicuous teeth, and with one pair of teeth at the synijjhy. 

 sial part of the lower jaw. The rostrum was composed of vomer, maxillaries, and pre- 

 maxillaries, the latter apart at their upper margins, and enclosing a cartilaginous 

 prolongation of the prefrontal, resting upon a canaliculate vomer; the basal parts of 

 the premaxillaries, diverging and expanding posteriorly, rose to define and include a 

 prenasal fossa, bisected by an ossified prefrontal septum, and at the back part of which 

 the nostrils opened. Palatines and pterygoids contributed to form the under part of the 

 base of the rostrum." 



All the characters of Ziphius (Cuvier, 1823), with the main specific modifications of 

 the cavirostral species, are here manilested. The real gain to zoology was the opportunity 

 of defining the external characters of the entire recent representative of the genus which 

 the Eounder of Palaeontology believed to have become extinct. This specimen was 

 unfortunately applied to multiply useless names and divert from the completion of a 

 knowledge of a most interesting generic form, ably and sagaciously indicated by Cuvier ; 

 it will again be referred to in reference to the claims for acceptance of the genus 

 Mesodiodon. 



good judgment of my ftllow countrymen and labourers in philosophical zoology which leads me to antici- 

 pate a tacit burial and oblivion of the barbarous and undefined generic names with which the fair edifice 

 begun by Linnaeus has been defaced. 



1 'Bulletin de la Socit'te Philomatliique,' torn, iv (182.)), p. 139. 



- F. Cuvier, ' Hist, des Cetaccs,' 8vo, p. 11 G, pis. vii and viii, fig. I. 



