502 



SMALL EYED CACHALOT. 



Physeter Microps. P. dorso, pinna lofiga, maxilla superiore km^ 

 giore, Lin, Syst. Nat, p. 107. Artedi. Gen, 74. Syn. 104. 



Cachalot with long dorsal fin, and upper jaw longer than the 

 lower. 



Cetus tripinnis, dentibus acutis arcuatis falciform ibus. Briss, 

 Regn. Anim, p. 363. 6. 



This is of equal, and sometimes even superior 

 size to the first described species and is a native 

 of the northern seas. The head is very large, and 

 nearly half the length of the body : the eyes ex- 

 tremely small, and the snout slightly obtuse : on 

 the back is a long- and somewhat upright narrow 

 and pointed fin. This species swims swiftly, and 

 is said to be a great enemy to the Porpoise, 

 which it pursues and preys upon. Its colour is 

 blackish above and whitish beneath. Some of the 

 supposed varieties of this Whale are said to grow 

 to the length of eighty or an hundred feet. The 

 teeth are of a more curved form than the rest of 

 the genus. 



A variety liowever is mentioned by Brisson, in 

 M hich the teeth are strait, or nearly so. 



* Fabricius however numbers it among the smaller Whales, and 

 adds that it is common in the Greenland seas ) that it has twenty- 

 teeth in the lower jaw, which are very white, falciform, conically 

 compressed, and sharp-pointed. The Greenlanders also affirm that 

 there are teeth in the upper jaw. 



