BEAKED WHALES 217 



This, the first species of the genus, is Atlantic and 

 North Sea in range. It is thus to be characterised : 

 Rostrum broad at base ; no basirostral groove ; 

 foramina for exit of two branches of second division 

 of fifth nerve on a level. Tooth near hinder ed^e 



o 



of mandibular symphysis ; its apex directed forwards. 



This species is the only one that has ever been 

 stranded on the shores of this country ; and not very 

 many examples have been thus seen or acquired. 

 Mr. Lydekker, in British Mammals, in "Allen's 

 Naturalists' Series," records ten individuals. Of these 

 the first is the one from which the species was 

 originally described. It was stranded on the shores 

 of Elginshire, and its skeleton is now in the Oxford 

 Museum. The very last specimen, which the present 

 writer had the pleasure of seeing in the flesh, is now 

 at Tring in the Hon. Walter Rothschild's Museum. 

 This whale reaches a length of from fifteen to 

 eighteen feet. 



A specimen of this whale was captured at Havre 

 in August, 1828, and lived for two days out of 

 the water. It was offered "soaked bread and 

 other alimentary substances"! "It emitted a low 

 cavernous sound like the lowing of a cow." This 

 specimen had no teeth, and was named in conse- 

 quence Aodon. 



Mesoplodon curopcziis, Gervais ;* ( = D. gervaisii, 

 Deslongchamps). Rostrum broad at base ; no 



* Zool. et Palaeonf. Franc., first ed., t. ii. 



