32 
ZOOLOGICAL LITERATURE. 
Cete. 
^ Prof, von Baer has again directed our attention to an opinion 
which he has held for many years, and in which he is supported 
by direct observations made by himself as well as by others, 
viz. that Cetaceans do not eject water from their blowholes^ 
but air saturated with water. In calm weather, it may be seen 
how the column of vapour rising from the bloAvholes expands 
at the top and gradually disappears ; it has never been seen 
falling back into the water, as would be the,easc if it were formed 
by water. Bull. Acad. Sc. St. Petersb. vii. 1864, p. 333. 
>4 Dr. Gray has given an elaborate account of the Cetaceans 
which have been observed in the seas surrounding the British 
Islands, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 195. After some introductory 
remarks on the difficulty of obtaining and observing specimens, 
and on the literature relating to these animals, he states Jhat 
whilst Turton had indicated only eighteen British species, this 
number is increased in this paper to thirty [twenty-nine] , be- 
longing to twenty genera. Schlegel enumerates ten Dutch, and 
Nilsson sixtejen Scandinavian species. The genera ancT species 
are differentiated chiefly by osteological characters. The care- 
ful examination,^^ the author says, p. 229, of many“skeletons 
has proved to me that almost every bone of each genus is j^cu- 
liar — that is to say, that no bone is exactly alike in any two 
genera ; but the difference between them is often very sligh^ so 
slight that it would be almost impossible to convey an accurate 
conception of it to the reader by words alone, yet it is permanent 
and characteristic. Though the same bones of the different 
skeletons of the same species of Megaptera or Physalus, which I 
have examined, offer a certain amount of variation in minor 
particulars, yet almost every bone of each species has a character 
of its own, so that a person conversant with the subject, and 
fresh from the study and comparison, can say at once to which 
genus or species any bone that might be shown to him belongs, 
even if it Avere only a phalange or a rib.^^ Many of the species 
are illustrated by woodcuts representing their tympanic bones, 
cervical vertebrm, or ribs ; and, to all, notes have been added on 
those points with Avhich the author has become better acquainted 
since the publication of his Catalogue of Cetacea.'^ The 
most characteristic parts have been found to be the cervical 
vertebrae, the ribs, and tympanic bones. The systematic arrange- 
ment differs from that proposed in the Catalogue of Cetacea 
chiefly in a further subdivision of the different groups, so that 
genera previously adopted are split into subgenera (which rank 
as genera), and themselves are raised to the rank of families. 
The new arrangement is as follows : 
1. Suborder CETJC, as before. 
Sect. I. Mysticete, — lam. JiALAiNiOAS of Cat. Cetac. 
