Pilot-Whale. 37 
by Captain Heaviside to the Royal College of Surgeons, from whose 
Museum it was obtained by exchange in 1841. 
Pil The Pilot-Whale, Grindwal, or Blackfish (Globicephalus, 
ilot- or Globicephala, melas), as this species is called, is an 
Whale. inhabitant of nearly all seas, and easily distinguished by 
its nearly uniform black colour, rounded head, low and triangular 
back-fin, and the great length and narrowness of the flippers. There 
are from 8 to 12 pairs of small, conical, sharp teeth in the fore- 
part of each jaw. The Pilot-Whale of the North Atlantic grows 
to about 20 feet in length, and is a sociable and inoffensive 
animal, feeding chiefly on cuttles and squids. When a “ school ”’ 
is attacked, all the members crowd together, and can thus be 
easily driven ashore by boats, so that in the Faroes hundreds are 
frequently captured at a time in this manner. Specimens from 
New Zealand seem indistinguishable from British examples. This 
Cetacean is represented in the Whale Room by a skeleton, upon 
which a half-model of the external form has been constructed ; 
and likewise by plaster-casts of the heads of an adult and an 
immature specimen exhibited on the west wall. 
There is also exhibited a disarticulated skull of a young Pilot- 
Whale, in order to show the type of skull-structure characteristic 
of Cetaceans generally; this being modified in a very peculiar 
manner from the ordinary Mammalan type. The brain-case is 
short, broad, and high; in fact, almost spherical. The Swpra- 
occipital bone rises upwards and forwards from the Horamen 
Magnum, to meet the Frontal bones at the vertex ; thus excluding 
the Parietal bones from the upper surface of the skull. The 
Frontals are expanded laterally, so as to form the roof of the 
Orbits, or Eye-sockets ; but their outer surface is so overlapped 
by the expanded Mazxille#, or hind upper jaw-bones, that only a 
small rim is exposed. The Nasal bones are always small, and in 
the Toothed Whales are reduced to mere nodules, which do not 
roof over any part of the nose-cavity. The latter opens upwards, 
and has in front of ita more or less horizontally-prolonged Rostrum, 
or Beak, formed of the Mavzille, Premaaxille, Vomer, and Meseth- 
moid Cartilage, which extends forwards to form the upper jaw, or 
roof of the mouth. Very frequently the skull is more or less 
asymmetrical in the neighbourhood of the nose-cavity, or blow- 
hole. This specimen was received from the Dundee Museum in 
1892. 
