Head depressed, rounded in front. Blowers linear (often only the one on the left side open), at the back of the forehead. Mouth small, inferior, rounded. Dorsal fin compressed, falcate. Pectoral fin elongate, falcate. Skull short; crown concave; hinder part of the wall formed by the maxillaries, and divided, as it were, into two subequal parts by a central bony ridge, which is more or less twisted towards the right side. Upper jaw toothless. Atlas and cervical vertebræ all united into a solid mass.
1. PHYSETER.
Physeter, Gray, l. c. pp. 196, 210, 386; Synops. Whales & Dolph. p. 4.
Head large, rather depressed in front. Skull ⸺?
Only known from Sibbald’s description, which, like his others, is very specific; and all his other accounts of animals have been proved to be correct.
Mr. Flower has no faith in Sibbald’s account of this animal, and says, “If the Linnæan genus Physeter is to be kept in abeyance until the rediscovery of Sibbald’s ‘Balæna macrocephala tripinna,’ it is to be feared that it may ultimately disappear altogether from zoological literature.”—Trans. Zool. Soc. vol. vi. p. 369.
1. Physeter tursio.
Physeter tursio, Linn., Gray, l. c. p. 212; Synops. Whales & Dolph. p. 4.
Inhab. North Sea, Scotland (Sibbald, 1687). Length 52 or 53 feet.