FOOD 261 



comprise three specimens of Himantolophus groenlandicus (Clarke, 1954c) and two specimens of 

 Ceratias holbolli. The latter, which are adult females, are the largest of this remarkable species so far 

 recorded, both substantially exceeding the standard length of the type specimen (68 cm.) which 

 hitherto was the largest known (Clarke, 1950, Table 1 ; Bertelsen, 195 1, p. 135). Only larval forms of 

 Himantolophus groenlandicus have previously been recorded from the North East Atlantic (Bertelsen, 

 195 1, p. 265), so that the three specimens mentioned in Table 14 now record the adult female at the 

 Azores. The table lists a minimum of eight whales which have eaten ceratioids among a total of 

 189 whales whose stomachs contained food when examined at Fayal between 1949 and 1954. This is 

 an incidence of 4-2% : when data from the Antarctic season 1947-8 are included, where one stomach 

 contained a ceratioid (C. holbolli) among fifty-six with food (Clarke, 1950), then the incidence among 

 a sample of 245 stomachs is not much changed at 37 %. Comparable in weight with substantial squids 

 like Cucioteuthis unguiculatiis, yet sluggish, revealed by their luminous lure, and with no other protec- 

 tion than their dermal spines, the large species of bathypelagic angler fishes are no doubt easy and 

 acceptable prey whenever the sperm whale encounters their solitary individuals in the sea; and they 

 may be considered characteristic though incidental items of the diet. One may note also that the 

 present data seem to confirm my earlier suggestion (195 1, p. 23) that large ceratioid fishes are com- 

 moner in the ocean than is generally supposed. 



Two elasmobranchs can now (1956) be added to the list of fish species known to be eaten at the 

 Azores. Mr Collins identified a black shark Dalatias licha from whale F365 (?, 10-2 m.) on 

 16 September 1955, and a young basking shark Cetorhinus maximus, 2-50 m. long, recovered intact from 

 a male of 144 m. on 10 February 1956 (Plate II, fig. 4). These records are not included in Table 14. 



Other organisms 

 In 1949 one whale yielded one specimen, and another two, of the pelagic colonial tunicate Pyrosoma 

 atlanticum var. ? elegans, the largest specimen measuring 0-28 m. In 1954 Senhor Reis recovered 

 several specimens of Pyrosoma from one of the stomachs he examined. The bell of a jelly-fish, 0-19 m. 

 in diameter, came from another stomach in 1949; Mizue (1950, p. 116) has also reported jelly-fish in 

 the stomachs of sperm whales from the Bonin Islands. Senhor Jacinto Silviera de Medeiros, who 

 has been much concerned with whales and whaling at Horta, described to me an organism which he 

 found some years ago in a stomach and which appears to have been a gorgonid; other organisms nor- 

 mally demersal in habit, like octopods, scorpaenids, skates, and even the benthic spider crabs, have 

 sometimes been reported from the stomachs of sperm whales elsewhere (Zencovich,- 1935, p. 67; 

 Tomilin, 1936, p. 494; Robbins, Oldham & Geiling, 1937; Omura, 1950; Pike, 1950; Mizue, 1951), 

 so it would seem that the sperm whale occasionally visits the sea floor. Records of dents on the fore- 

 head, believed to be collision scars (p. 256), support this statement. 



Abundance of food 

 The stomachs of all sperm whales contain indigestible remains like squid beaks, eye-lenses and 

 'pens'; the quantities of these relics are neglected in Tables 15-17 which refer only to bulk of digest- 

 ible food. 



Only a small fraction of either sex had empty stomachs among the whales examined at Horta 

 between 1949 and 1954. The first stomachs of nearly half the 1 32 males were stuffed with food (Table 15). 

 Among the 162 females the proportion of full stomachs was less by 14-6% (Table 16). But the 

 two tables are not entirely comparable since Table 16 includes data from 1950 and 1951 when Senhor 

 Reis examined the stomachs of females only. However, supposing the females were in fact feeding 

 rather less heavily than the males, then it might be that the sexual condition of the classes of females 



