Seventeenth Genus—OXYPTERUS.

With two dorsal fins.

M. Refinesque Smaltz, a naturalist established in Sicily, proposed this name for a dolphin with two dorsal fins, which he affirmed he had seen in the Mediterranean. The evidence he gave of its existence was unsatisfactory, and had not Messrs. Quoy and Gaimard, in their voyage, met with another example of this very singular genus, it would probably have been passed by in this place. This was the

RHINOCEROS WHALE.

Oxypterus Rhinoceros, Lesson Delphinus Rhinoceros, Quoy and Gaimard,

As no individual of this species was captured, we cannot present any plate which could be depended upon; we copy, however, from the atlas of Quoy and Gaimard, a cut which will assist the imagination and rivet the peculiarity on the memory.

“We shall quote the words of these eminent voyagers. “In October 1809, in going from the Sandwich Islands to New South Wales, many Dolphins, in troops, were performing their rapid evolutions about our vessel. Every one on board was surprised to perceive that they had a fin on their head bent backwards, the same as that on their backs. The size of this animal was about double that of the common Porpoise; and the upper part of its body to the dorsal fin was spotted black and white.

“We did our best to examine them, all the time they accompained us; but although they often passed the prow of the vessel, with the highest part of their back out of the water, yet their heads were so submerged, that neither M. Arago nor we could discover whether their snout was long or short; and their habits could not assist us on this point, because they never sprang above the wave, as is common with other species. From their very singular conformation, we have assigned them their name—Rhinoceros.”

Jardine (1837) The Naturalist’s Library Vol. VI - On the Ordinary Cetacea

From the library of Charles Atwood Kofoid. See also, Sukotyro.