SPERM WHALES AND BOTTLE-NOSED WHALES 275 



Genus Ziphius. 

 CUVIER'S BEAKED WHALE {Ziphius cavirostris). Fig. 70. 



Cuvier's Beaked Whale or, as it is sometimes called, the 

 Goose-beaked Whale, is the only known representative of the 

 genus Ziphius. Its external form, although conforming 

 generally to the typical Ziphioid pattern, is distinguished by 

 the shortness of the beak compared, for instance, with that of 

 the common Bottle-nosed Whale. There is no pronounced 

 forehead, as in the latter species ; instead the dorsal surface 

 of the head behind the beak slopes backwards at quite an 

 oblique angle from the snout. The distance from the tip of 

 the snout to the blowhole is one-tenth to one-eighth the total 

 length. It is difficult to pick out well-defined external charac- 

 teristics which distinguish this whale, although certain cranial 

 features isolate it from other Ziphioid genera. 



The colour varies markedly in different specimens ; thus a 

 young animal from the New Zealand coast is described as 

 " purplish-black above, brown on the sides, and white below, 

 except towards the tail, where it was brown ". An aged 

 female specimen from the same region was " bluish-black on 

 the upper portion of the body, white beneath, the upper portion 

 being marked with numerous oval spots 2 or 3 inches across 

 like the skin of a leopard ; '. A young female from New 

 Zealand and a specimen from the British coast figured in Sir 

 Sidney Harmer's Report No. 10 on ' Stranded Cetacea ' had this 

 scheme of coloration reversed. Describing the English speci- 

 men Harmer states : " The whole of the head, including the 

 lower jaw, and part of the body were cream-white, separated 

 from the dark skin of the rest of the animal by an oblique line 

 passing from the anterior end of the dorsal fin, in front of the 

 flipper, to the posterior end of the lower jaw. Much of the 

 skin was covered by long, linear streaks, resembling those 

 usually found in Grampus griseus." It will be seen from these 

 descriptions that body colour does not help very much in the 

 identification of Cuvier's Whale. 



The teeth, a single pair at the tip of the lower jaw, are 

 visible during life in male animals of this species. They are 

 rounded or conical at their tips, and have their greatest diameter 



