1 82 WHALES 



As the Sperm whale is the most familiar form, 

 perhaps, among the toothed whales we will commence 

 with an account of it and its family. 



FAMILY, PHYSETERIDAE 

 This family may be thus characterised : 



All or most of the cervicals ankylosed. Costal 

 cartilages not ossified. Pterygoids thick and meeting 

 in middle line ; lacrymal bones distinct and large ; 

 symphysis of mandible long. Teeth found in both 

 jaws, but those of lower jaw alone functional,* often 

 very reduced in number. Pectoral limb smallish. 

 Throat furrowed by two or more furrows, f 



These whales form a small assemblage of forms 

 which are again divided by Sir William Flower into 

 the Sperm whales and the Ziphioids. Van Beneden 

 is in favour of uniting them rather more closely. 

 The chief anatomical characters which ally the Sperm 

 whales to the Ziphioids and the fewer characters 

 which separate them are given below on p. 213. 



The whales of this group are for the most part, 

 if not altogether, social, the solitary and stranded 

 individuals being as a rule males. Probably these 

 males are, like "rogue" elephants, fierce bulls which 



* In Kogia simits Owen figures a pair of apparently functional teeth 

 in the upper jaw near to its anterior extremity. This fact, moreover, has 

 been recently confirmed by Cope in his " Fourth Contribution to the 

 Marine Fauna of the Miocene Period of the United States" in Proc. 

 Amer. Phil. Sac., 1895, p. 135. 



t ? as to Kogia. 



