336 



ZII'UIIUJ5. 



IJaussard. 



Adult. Ynuu;^'. 



ft. in. ft. ill. 



Length of head 1 4 



Length of pectoral 2 1 U 



Length to dorsal fiu 13 6 7 8 



Length of dorsal fin 2 1 U 



Length to vent 7 10 



Width of pectoral 1 3 7 



Width of caudal (5 10 ;5 2 



Circumference lo 7 8 (» 



Circumference of head 8 7 



Height of dorsal 1 3 7 



The three Hyperoodons recorded to have occurred on the English 

 coast appeared singly. Two, described hy M. Baussard, taken 

 at Honfieur, consisted of a mother, 23, and her young, 1 2 feet long. 

 Of several captured on 'the Irish coast, they, on two occasions, ap- 

 peared in i^airs. In one of the three instances, two of these whales 

 were secured at the same time. It would therefore appear that the 

 species was not gregarious. — Thompson, Ann. 6f Mug. Nat. Hist. 

 184G, xvii. 



A specimen was captured in Ballyholm Bay, near Bangor, county 

 Down, on the Kith September, which was 24 feet long and 18 or 20 

 feet in girth at the thickest part. The entire iipper surface was 

 blackish grey, the under parts rather paler. The stomach contained 

 the remains of shells and what were called " the feet of fowls," which 

 Mr. Thompson thought might be the beaks of cuttlefish. 



Dr. Jacob says that the oval cavity into which the oesophagus 

 opened " contained a large quantity of the beaks of cuttlefish, per- 

 haps two quarts." — P. Z. S. 1860. 



A female ' whale ' and its young was caught near Whitstable, Kent, 

 and was well figured in the ' Illustrated News' for 18th November 

 18G0, from a drawing by the Ilev. G. Beardsworth, who procured for 

 the museum a complete skeleton of the older and part of the ske- 

 leton of the younger specimen, and also a portion of the food found 

 in the stomach. There was more than a half bushel of the beaks of 

 a cuttlefish, probably of the Octopus or sea-spider, and nothing else. 

 An immense number of Octopi must have been eaten to furnish 

 such a quantity ; for they are small and were packed close, often 

 one within the other. — See Gray, P. Z. S. 18G0, 422. 



2. LAGENOCETUS. 



The crests of the maxillary bones very thick and close together, 

 especially above, where they are flat-topped. The beak of the skuU 

 horizontal. The hinder edge of the skull lower than the tops of the 

 crests. Lower jaw straight. 



Lagenocetus, Grm/, P. Z. S. 1803, 200 : 1864, 241. 

 Hyperoodon, sp., Gray, Cut. Cetac. 69. 



