40 BRITISH MAMMALS 



contact are stated to possess loud voices, which they use when in 

 distress, and which resemble the bellowing of oxen, or even loud, 

 human-like sobs. 



Hyperoodon rostratus. The Common Beaked or Bottle- 

 nosed Whale 



This animal attains to a length of from 20 ft. to 26 ft., males 

 even perhaps as much as 30 ft. The upper jaw is prolonged 

 into a short beak, and above the beak rises a huge, dome-like 

 forehead, supported not only by the premaxillary crests of bone 



which rise from 

 the base of the 

 skull, but also 

 (in the males) by 

 two still huger 

 excrescences o f 

 bone growing up 

 above the eyes in 

 a pyramidal shape. 

 This growth of 

 bone in the males, 

 and the con- 

 sequent exagge- 

 ration of the 



Head of Bottle-nosed Whale {Hyperoodon rostratus). bulerinp forehead 



almost covers the beak, which is much more apparent in the 

 females and in the young. The teeth are reduced to a small 

 pair, conical in shape, at the extremity of the lower jaw, but these 

 even are covered over by the gum, so that the creature during 

 its life is practically toothless. The tail is not notched in the 

 middle between the flukes, but has a perfectly straight outline 

 along its extremity. In colour the bottle-nosed whale is black 

 above and grayish-white beneath, but with advancing age turns 

 to yellowish-gray all over, with a white band round the neck and 

 white on the front of the head and upper jaw. The beaked 

 or bottle-nosed whale is never found in herds, but goes about 



