io ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



From these examples it is evident that the seas to 

 the north and east of Shetland have of late years been 

 frequented by the sperm whale in considerable numbers. 



The presence of quantities of beaks of cuttlefish in 

 the stomach of the specimen from Shetland corroborates 

 the observations made of late years that sperm whales 

 live largely on cephalopoda. But the hooks found in 

 considerable numbers in its stomach point also to a fish 

 diet. Mr. Frank T. Bullen, in the " Cruise of the Cachalot " 

 states that during the cutting of a sperm whale, in addition 

 to dismembered squid of large size, a number of fish, such 

 as rock cod, barracouta, schnapper, and the like, were found 

 in its stomach. 



Professor Guldberg relates that in the stomach of the 

 old male captured in 1895, in addition to the remains of 

 cuttlefish, a portion of the spine of a large fish, a fish-hook 

 and some stones, there was about a square foot of the skin 

 of a seal, with its hairs and four of its claws. In the 

 stomach of the young male caught in 1 896 off East 

 Finmark a gelatinous and cartilaginous mass several feet 

 long was found. It consisted of the half digested portions 

 of a cartilaginous spinal column, which from its magnitude 

 had evidently been a part of a large cartilaginous fish, 

 possibly, according to Professor Collett, SelacJic maxima. 



These observations extend very materially our knowledge 

 of the range of the food of the sperm whale, as, in addition 

 to cephalopoda and smaller species of fish, the animal 

 apparently at times attacks and devours large cartilaginous 

 fish and seals. It is difficult to explain the purpose which 

 was served by the stones found in the stomach of one of 

 the above specimens, but I should state that some species 

 of seals are in the habit of swallowing stones, and afterwards 

 of ejecting them, a habit which has led the seal hunters to 

 speak of the stomach in which stones are found as the 

 ballast bag. As the stones were present in the stomach 

 of the same sperm whale in which the remains of the seal 

 were found, it is possible that they had formed part of the 

 contents of the stomach of the seal which the whale had 

 eaten. 



It is interesting to note that Professor Benham, in his 



