200 CATODONTID^. 



" Owing to the great projection of the snout beyond the lower jaw, 

 it may be requisite for this whale to turn on its side or back to seize 

 its more bulky prej'. When the animal attacks a boat with its 

 mouth it invariably assumes a reversed posture, carrj-ing the lower 

 jaw above the object it is attempting to bite." — Bennett, I. c. 176 ; see 

 also Beale, Hist. Sperm Whale, 159, and fig. at 154. 



" The ordinary food is the cuttle-"fish or squid (Sepia), many kinds 

 of which are rejected from the stomach of the whale when the latter 

 is attacked by the boats. It is probable they occasionally indulge 

 in other food. In 1835 a School Whale rejected from her stomach 

 a bony fish more than a foot long. Some whalers assert that they 

 have seen Cachalots throw up rock-cod, and even sharks." — Bennett, 

 7. c. 176 ; see Beetle, 18. 



Couch says a young one, 20 feet long, caught at Eopehann, on 

 the coast of Cornwall, had 300 mackerel in its stomach. 



" The habitat of the Sperm Whale is more peculiarly the central 

 and fathomless water of the ocean, or the vicinity of the most abrupt 

 coast. The geographical range of the species (genus ?) must be re- 

 garded as very extensive, since no part of the aqueous globe, except- 

 ing the Polar seas, would appear to be altogether inimical to their 

 habits or free from their visits. It is, however, in the wanner seas, 

 within or upon the verge of the tropics, that the Cachalot is sought 

 with the greatest success, as in those corresponding to the inter- 

 tropical coasts of Africa, America, Asia, and New Holland, or sur- 

 rounding the Indian and Polynesian islands, but more especially and 

 uniformly in the ' line of currents ' which extend from the equator 

 to almost the seventh degree of north and south latitude, both in 

 the western and eastern hemispheres." — Bennett, I, c. 182, with map, 

 showing where they occurred during his voyage. They were ob- 

 served in the Antarctic Seas as high as lat. 71° 50'. — Boss, Antarctic 

 Voyage, i. 169, 197. 



Mr. Beale says, " From having particularly noticed their external 

 form, and also their manner and habits in varioiis parts of the world 

 very distant from each other, yet I was never led to suppose for an 

 instant from their observance that more than one species" (the 

 Sperm Whale) " exists. The large full-grown male appears the same 

 in every part, from New Guinea to Japan, from Japan to the coast 

 of Peru, from Peru to our own island ; while their females coincide 

 in every particular, having their young ones among them in the same 

 order, and appearing similar to all others which I had seen in every 

 respect, merely differing a little in colour or fatness according to 

 the climate in which they were captured, as we had an opportunity 

 of observing as they were lying dead by the side of the ship." — 

 Beale, 12, 13. 



But this is merely speaking the language of whalers, and by species 

 he means, as he does in the other parts of his book, genus. I have 

 no doubt, from analogj' of other whales, that when we shall have 

 had the opportunity of accurately comparing the bones and the 

 various proportions of the parts of the Northern and Southern kinds, 

 we shall find them distinct. Mr. W. S. MacLeay, in his essay on 



