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Show 1883.] O N T H E FEMALE ORGANS OF THE INDIAN ELEPHANT. 517 In the great revision of the nomenclature of the Cetacea undertaken by Dr. Gray in the Zoology of the Voyage of the ' Erebus' and ' Terror ' (1846), Rudolphi's Whale was called Balanoptera laticeps, an ill-chosen name, as the head is not wider proportionally than in other members of tbe genus. In Dr. Gray's next revision1, the genus Balanoptera being divided into three, it appears as Sib-baldius laticeps, under which name I described the skeletons referred to above in the P. Z. S. for 1864. A still further subdivision of the genera of Whales by Dr. Gray in 18712 resulted in the synonym of Rudolphius laticeps. Lesson's specific name borealis, whether regarded as original or as a translation of Cuvier's designation, has undoubted priority, and has moreover received the sanction of Van Beneden and Gervais, being used in their magnificent work on the osteology of the Cetacea. It has also been adopted by P. Fischer in his valuable memoir on the Cetacea of the south-west of France3. The generic name is of course of much less importance, depending entirely upon whether it is considered expedient to retain Lacepede's genus Balanoptera in its integrity for all the Rorquals, or whether any of the subdivisions proposed by Dr. Gray should be adopted. Although these, especially in the later revisions, became far too numerous to be considered of generic value, being founded in many cases on mere individual variation, or on characters depending on immaturity (as Benedenid), there is perhaps something to be said for the original triple division into Physalus, Sibbaldius, and Balanoptera, which certainly represent three distinct sections of the group, characterized by osteological differences, described in m y "Notes on the Whales in the Museums of Holland and Belgium," P. Z. S. 1864. As, however, we have still so much to learn of the Rorquals of other seas, and as the possibility of intermediate forms being discovered is not yet exhausted, I think it better for the present at least to retain the old generic designation for them all. 3. Additional Observations on the Structure of the Female Organs of the Indian Elephant (Elephas indicus). By M . W A T S O N , M.D., Professor of Anatomy in the Owens College, Manchester. [Received July 19, 1883.] In a previous communication to this Society4 I directed attention to the diversity of statement on tbe part of anatomists with regard to the structure of the female organs of the Indian Elephant. In 1 P.Z.S. 1864, p. 399. t..m i. 2 ' Suppl. Cat. Seals and Whales in Brit. Mus. p. 54 (1871). 3 Fischer cites the species as B. borealis, Cuvier, following the practice usual with French authors in the numerous cases in which Cuvier described species under a vernacular appellation without bestowing upon them any systematic Latin name. 4 Trans. Zool. Soc. I88l, p. H L |