THE BEAKED WHALES 1207 



gently into a marked prominence in front of the blowhole, behind which is another 

 prominence, with the level of its summit continued backward into the line of the 

 back. The opening of the ear is so small as to admit only of the passage of a fine 

 bristle. In a specimen stranded in 1888 on the shores of the Firth of Forth the 

 color of the upper parts was bluish slate, while that of the under parts was a light 

 slate. The body was also marked with a number of whitish spots, which were 

 most numerous on the sides; these spots being in some places connected by narrow 

 streaks. Other individuals are described as being nearly black above, while in 

 others the tint becomes more decidedly blue. A specimen captured at New Jersey 

 in 1889 measured twelve and one-half feet in length. 



Whether Sowerby's whale ranges into the seas of the Southern Hemisphere is 

 not definitely ascertained, although, as already mentioned, the genus is more abun- 

 dantly represented there than to the north of the Equator; and it is still a question 

 whether many of the southern forms, to which separate names have been received, 

 are entitled to rank as distinct species, or whether they should be regarded as 

 merely varieties of the European one. 



L,ayard's whale (M. layardi}, from the Cape of Good Hope and the 



Wh 1 seas ^ ^ e other parts of the Southern Hemisphere, is, however un- 

 doubtedly a very well-marked species, characterized by the enormous 

 development of the strap-like teeth, to which allusion has already been made. The 

 late Professor Moseley, in describing a skull of this species obtained at the Cape dur- 

 ing the voyage of the Challenger, observes that ' ' these two teeth in the adult ani- 

 mal become lengthened by continuous growth of the fangs into long, curved tusks. 

 These arch over the upper jaw or beak, and crossing one another above it at their 

 tips, form a ring round it, and lock the lower jaw, so that the animal can only open 

 its mouth for a very short distance indeed. The tusks are seen always to be worn 

 away in front by the grating of the confined upper jaw against them. How the 

 animal manages to feed itself under these conditions is a mystery. It is remarkable 

 that the main mass of each tusk is made up of what appears to be an abnormal 

 growth of the fang. The actual conical tooth, that is the original small cap of den- 

 tine [ivory] of the tooth of the young animal, which corresponds to the part of the 

 teeth showing above the gum in other whales, does not increase at all in size, but is 

 carried up by the growth of the fangs, and remains at the tips of the tusks as a sort 

 of wart-like rudimentary excrescence. ' ' That these enormous teeth can be of no 

 possible advantage to their owner appears perfectly clear; and they must probably 

 be regarded as affording an instance of semimonstrous development analogous to 

 the one displayed by the tusks of the babiroussa. 



A specimen stranded at the Cape was said to be black above and white beneath, 

 with the division between the two tints sharply defined. One measuring something 

 over sixteen feet in length yielded eighty gallons of oil of a superior quality. The 

 species appears excessively rare, and the know r n examples have been stranded. 



The last representative of this group is Arnux's whale (Berardms 



Whale arnuxi) , from the New Zealand seas, which attains a length of about 



thirty feet. It differs from all the other forms in having two pairs of 



teeth near the front of the jaw; the first pair being placed close to the tip of the 



