15 



that the sperm whale of the Pacific feeds ahnost entirely on 

 cephalopod mollnsca, or squid ; and, that when near land, it 

 sometimes, though very rarely, devours small fishes. 



Books of Natural History, in general, make the grand 

 characteristic of sperm whales to consist in the utter defi- 

 ciency of teeth in the upper jaw.* It may be some excuse 

 for this common mistake, that we find the deficiency of upper 

 teeth mentioned by Cuvier in his ^''Hegne Animal^^ as, 

 perhaps, the most palpable distinction. In truth, however, 

 scarcely any character of sperm whales can be selected less 

 peculiar than this, since the want of teeth in the upper jaw 

 is very common among the dolphins. The ^enex2i Hyper ooclon, 

 Lacep., ZijyJiius, Cuvier, and DelpJiinorhynclnis , Gray, have 

 all no teeth in the upper jaw ; and even such typical genera 

 of DelpJmiidce as Beluga, Gray, Globicephalus, Lesson, and 

 Grampus, Gray, have them early deciduous. So far, there- 

 fore, as concerns this character, the cachalots are nothing else 

 than immense animals of the dolphin family. 



At least, there can be little doubt of the Catodontidce or 

 sperm whales coming nearer to the dolphins, more particularly 

 to the genus Hyperoodon, in structure, than to the toothless or 

 true whales, forming Mr. Gray's family Balcenidce, One 

 great distinction from all other Cetacea of the Catodontidce, is 

 the vast concavity of the upper surface of their skull. Several 

 kinds of dolphin have the skull concave, but none have the 

 hollow of such capaciousness. This hollow, under the floor 



* Beale says, that some sperm whales have rudimentary teeth in the 

 upper jaw ; but if so, such animals must belong to a very diiFerent species 

 from, our Sydney whale, which has not even the vestige of alveoles. Nor 

 has the skull of a very young sperm lately discovered on the beach near 

 Botany. However, it is right to remind those persons who may have it in 

 their power to investigate the matter, that Mr. F. D. Bennett says, that he 

 found eight rudimentary teeth on each side of the upper jaw in two instances 

 of sperm whales, which teeth " are not visible externally in the young 

 cachalots, but may be seen upon the removal of the soft parts from the 

 interior of the jaw." Tlie entire length of these teeth was about three 

 inches ! Now, this story is not to be reconciled with the description of the 

 upper jaw of the sperm whale given above, and, therefore, I suspect that 

 Mr. Bennett must have taken some kind of dolphin for a young cachalot. 



