OCR Text |
Show 560 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE BOTTLENOSED WHALES. [Nov. 12, tympanum very large, but not very distinct; eustachian tubes moderate. PACHYBATRACHUS ROBUSTUS. Head large and broad, snout slightly longer than the eye, and the loreal region nearly vertical. Eye large, tympanum very large. Digits with their extremities rounded and with subarticular tubercles. Skin entirely smooth. A glandular fold extending from the eye to the anus, and sending down a branch behind the tympanum. Upper parts dark brown; glandular fold, tarsus, tibia, arm, and middle of back with black markings. Under parts lighter, and free from black markings. Transverse light markings on the hindei part of each upper eyelid. The typical specimen has been deposited in the national collection. 3. Note on the Bottlenosed Whales (Tursio). B y Dr. J. E . G R A Y , F.R.S., V.P.Z.S., &c. A short time ago the British Museum received three skeletons and a skull of the Bottlenosed Dolphin (Tursio truncatus), which were obtained from one school by Edward Gerrard, jun., in the Firth of Forth. They show the very great change that takes place in the form of the skull, and especially of the beak, during the growth of the animal. The beak of the skull of the young animal is regular, conical, tapering and contracted in front. The skull is 17^ inches long, with the beak, from the notch, 9g inches, and the teeth-line, by the callipers, 8 inches. The teeth are small, conical, acute, three and one-half in an inch. The skull of a full-grown female is similar but larger than that of the young animal. There is another skull of a full-grown animal of the same school, but its sex was not determined. It is very like that of the female, but rather larger. The skull of the very old male animal (fig. 1, p. 561) is much thickened; but the great peculiarity is that the beak is broad and flattened, and very much expanded, flattened, and curved up at the tip in front, and as if part of the beak in front had been absorbed. The teeth have nearly all fallen out, and there is only one left, which is spread out towards the edges and flattened, and evidently would have fallen out in a very short time. The intermaxillary and palatine bones are visible nearly to the back part of the palate of the beak. The length of the skull is 2 0 | inches, of the beak, from the notch, 11^, of the teeth-line 9|. Width of the brain-case at eyebrows 11^, of beak at notch 6, in middle (or tenth tooth) 4^. There is a considerable difference in the form of the pterygoid bones and of the sheath of the hinder nasal opening in these four |