368 WHALES AND “SEA-SERPENTS” CHAP. 
met with. Most of them are southern in range, and the 
vast stretches of desolate coast which occur in these regions of 
the world account possibly for the rarity of their remains. 
These Whales have done duty more than once for the “Sea 
Serpent.” Quite recently an alleged sea serpent turned out to 
be a couple of Mesoplodon lying head to tail! The head in 
these Whales is small compared to the body. The skull is 
characterised by the strong maxillary crests, enormously deve- 
loped in the male Hyperoodon. The vertex of the skull too is 
raised, forming a pronounced prominence behind the aperture of 
the nares (blow-hole); in many forms the rostrum is made of 
very dense bone, and is thus relatively abundant in rock strata. 
The pterygoids meet in the middle line as in the Cachalot. 
In addition to the few functional teeth in the lower jaw there 
are more numerous but small teeth in the upper jaw. These 
are not always to be recognised, as they are not attached to the 
bone, but merely imbedded in the gums, so that they come away 
when the skull is prepared. 
The genus Berardius’ differs from Mesoplodon’ by its rather 
more symmetrical skull, of which the vertex is formed by the 
nasals. The mesethmoid is only partly ossified. The teeth 
are two on each side of the mandible, with their apices directed 
forwards. The vertebral formula is C 7, D 10, L 12, Ca 19. 
B. arnouxi, from the seas of New Zealand, is the only species 
of this genus which is well known. It is 30 or 32 feet in 
length, and is of a velvety black colour, with a greyish belly. 
Instead of lowing like a cow, this Whale has been described 
as “bellowing like a bull”! A singular and somewhat inex- 
plicable fact has been stated of this species. The teeth were 
said to be protrusible, and Sir James Hector stated that the 
teeth were imbedded “in a tough cartilaginous sae which 
adheres loosely in the socket of the jaw, and is moved by a 
series of muscular bundles that elevate or depress it.” Sir 
William Flower justly observed that these statements “accord so 
little with anything hitherto known in mammalian anatomy 
that further observations on the subject are extremely desir- 
able.” Like other Ziphioids, Berardius feeds mainly, if not 
entirely, upon cuttle-fish, a prey eminently suited to their almost 
toothless mouths. It is not known whether Serardius has the 
1 See Flower, Zrans. Zool. Soc. viii. 1872, p. 203. 
