378 Mr. W. Thompson on the Bottle-nosed Whale. 



The entire upper surface was of a blackish-grey colour, the 

 under parts somewhat paler. The stomach is said to have 

 contained the remains of shells, and what was described to be 

 like the ^^ feet of fowls^^ — these I have little doubt were por- 

 tions of the arms or feet of cuttle-fish* (Sepiadce). Although 

 it was late in the evening when this whale was brought ashore, 

 its captors at once commenced taking off the blubber, so that 

 unfortunately no person who would have felt a scientific in- 

 terest in the spectacle, had the opportunity of seeing the ani- 

 mal in a perfect state. During the progress of cutting up on 

 the day after its death, the body was still warm and smoking. 

 To the intelligent farmer whose property this whale became, 

 I showed all the figures of Cetacece in Mr. BelPs work, when 

 he at once, from the narrow elongated snout, and head arising 

 abruptly from it, identified the specimen with the Hyperoodon, 

 objecting only to the snout not being represented so long 

 comparatively as in the real animal. To another respectable 

 farmer who had got its head, I exhibited these figures, and he 

 also immediately singled out the Hyperoodon, considering the 

 figure of Dale^s specimen as more characteristic of the general 

 form of the animal than that of Hunter's ; the tail of this 

 latter however being the better liked. The gape or opening 

 of the mouth was remarked to be thus ^-> or " like the letter y^' 

 — teeth none — the snout shaped like a bottle : it was similarly 

 described by our first informant. In a newspaper paragraph 



• Dr. Jacob says of the Hyperoodon he dissected, that the oval cavity 

 into which the oesophagus opened " contained a large quantity of the beaks 

 of cuttle-fishes, perhaps two quarts." Again, in the Catalogue of the Museum 

 of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, p. 161, there appears — " Cuttle- 

 fish bills found in the stomach of a Balcena rostrata." Apprehending that 

 this rather referred to the Hyperoodon than the Balcena, I wrote to Dr. Jacob 

 respecting it, and learned in reply that the "cuttle-bills" so mentioned were 

 those taken from the former species by him — this is noticed merely to prevent 

 error. In the specimen of Balcena rostrata dissected by Dr. Jacob, the re- 

 mains of herrings only were detected (Dublin Phil. Journ. November 1825, 

 p. 343). The Rev. Dr. Barclay remarks of the Round-headed Porpoise 

 {Delphinus melas) that " its favourite food seems to be cuttle-fish, of which 

 great quantities are generally found in the stomach." — Bell's Brit. Quad. 

 485. In this species my friend R. Ball, Esq. has likewise observed the 

 remains of these cephalopods. In Mr. Hyndman's possession are the beaks 

 of cuttle-fish taken from the stomach of a whale (but of what species I have 

 not learned) captured on the coast of Waterford some years ago. The con- 

 sumption of these animals by at least two species of our Cetaceae would thui 

 seem to be considerable. 



