SEALS AND WHALES OF THE BRITLSH SEAS. 99 



distant parts of the world, to the number of about 30 individuals, in all 

 cases solitary, and that their habits were almost absolutely unknown. 

 Since that time, however, very considerable additions have been made 

 to our knowledge of the group, and Professor Flower, in a second contri- 

 bution on the same subject* made in 1877, states that "instead of being 

 so rare as was then supposed, since the attention of naturalists resident 

 in our colonies has been directed to the importance of losing no opportunity 

 of securing such specimens as accidents of wind and waves may cast upon 

 their shores, it has been proved that in the seas of the Southern Hemisphere 

 these Whales exist in considerable numbers, both as species and as indi- 

 viduals, and that one species, at least \Mesoplodon grayi\ is gregarious, 

 having been met with in two instances in 'schools' of considerable num- 

 bers." " The geographical distribution of the group," adds Professor Flowerf 

 "has a very great interest in relation to that of many other Australian 

 groups, both of vertebrates and invertebrates. Among the earliest known 

 remains of Cetacea, in the Belgian and Suffolk Crags, Mesoplodon and closely- 

 allied forms are most abundant. Up to a little more than ten years ago, the 

 few stray individuals of Mesoplodon bidens occasionally stranded on the 

 shores of North Europe, were supposed to be their sole survivors. Since 

 that time it has been proved that they are still numerous in species, and 



even in individuals in the seas which surround the Australian 



continent, extending from the Cape of Good Hope on the one side, to New 

 Zealand on the other, though beyond these limits no specimens have yet 

 been met with. It is the history of the Marsupial Mammals, of Ceratodus^ 

 of Terehratula, and of numerous other forms." 



The group is divided into four genera — Hyperoodon, Berardius, Ziphius, and 

 Mesoplodon (the second of which is not represented in our Fauna). Its 



* Ibid. X., p. 415. + Ibid., p. 435. 



