666 
VERTEBRATA. 
rounded; the plaits of the belly and throat are broad. The skull is intermediate between that 
of the Balcena and BalcBnoptera. 
Johnston's Hump-backed Whale, M. longimana^ is an inhabitant of the North Sea, and has 
been taken at the mouth of the Maas. It is the Balcena longima,na of Rudolphi, and the Balcena 
Boojjs or ITeporkak of Eschricht, who says it is the most common whale in the Greenland seas. 
The Bermuda Hump-Back, M. Americana^ is of a black color, with a white belly, and has its 
head covered with tubercles. It is found at Bermuda from March to the end of May, when it 
departs. The baleen of this whale is extensively imported from Bermuda. 
The Poeskop or Cape Hump-Back, M. PoesTcop^ is the Rorqual chi Cap of Cuvier, and the 
Hump-backed Whale of Ross's "Antarctic Voyage." It is an inhabitant of the seas of the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
The KuziRA, M. Kuzira^ inhabits the Japanese seas. 
Genus BALJENOPTERA : halcenoptera, includes the Finners, which are marked by a soft 
dorsal fin. Of this a well-known species called the Pike-Whale, B. rostrata ; the Rorqualus 
rostratus of Dekay ; the Rorqualus Boops of F. Cuvier. It is of a black color ; underneath 
of a reddish-white. It inhabits the North Sea, and has been found in New York Bay, at Valognes 
in France, and a specimen was taken in the Thames at Deptford. 
The Razor-Back, Physalus Antiquorum, is of a slate-gray color, whitish beneath ; the baleen 
is slate-colored. This species is an inhabitant of the North Sea, and is sometimes found a 
hundred feet long, being in fact the longest species of known animals. One of this kind was found 
floating in Plymouth Sound, England, on the 2d of October, 1831. It is stated to have been one 
hundred and two feet long and seventy-five in circumference. This specimen was taken round 
the country as a show in three caravans. 
The P. [Rorqualus) Boops of Gray has been taken off the coast of Wales. The length of a 
specimen in the British Museum is thirty-eight feet; the head is nine feet long; the vertebrae 
are sixty in nimiber, and there are fifteen pairs of single ribs. 
The P. (^Rorqualus) Sihbaldii. A specimen of this species, fifty feet long, exists in the mu- 
seum at Hull, England. 
The Peruvian Finner, P.fasciatus^ described by Tschudi, has been found on the coasts of Peru. 
The Japan Finnee, P. Iwasi, is very rare ; one was cast ashore at Kii in 1*760 ; it was twenty- 
five feet long. 
The P. antarcticus ; this is named from the baleen of a New Zealand species by Dr. J. E. Gray. 
The Bahia Finner, P, Brasiliensis, is named from baleen brought from Bahia. 
The Southern Finner, P. Australis, inhabits the seas of the Falkland Islands. 
THE CATODOITTID^ OR SPEEM-WPIALES. 
This family, called Toothed Whales, are distinguished from the true whales by the absence of 
baleen plates, and the presence of from forty to fifty conical teeth in the lower jaw. This is 
shorter and narrower than the upper jaw, so that when the mouth is closed it is completely in- 
closed by the upper jaw. The teeth fit into cavities of the upper jaw, which although not quite 
destitute of teeth, possesses these organs in a very rudimentary condition, and concealed in the 
gums. The head, as in the true whales, is of enormous size, forming about one-third of the entire 
length of the animal, and its form is very remarkable. It is nearly cylindrical, and singu- 
larly truncated in front, and the blow-hole, instead of being placed on the forehead, is situated on 
the anterior portion of this immense snout. The mass of this part of the head is not composed 
of bone, but of a sort of cartilaginous envelope, containing an oily fluid, which hardens by expo- 
sure to the air, and in this state is well known as spermaceti. This substance is also diffused 
through the blubber. 
The Genus CATODON, Catodon, includes the only well known species — the Sperm- Whale, or 
Spermaceti Whale, or Blunt-headed Cachalot, C. macrocephcdus, the Physeter macrocephalus 
of Linnaeus. Its color is black above and white below. It is very generally distributed in al} 
seas, but principally in those of the southern hemisphere. The male is of immense bulk, usually 
measuring about sixty feet in length; and specimens have been met with no less than seventy- 
