458 



On the Tusks of the Narwhale. By Sir Everard Home, Bart. F.R.S. 

 Read February 18, 1813. [Phil. Trans. 1813, p. 126.] 



The author acknowledges himself indebted to the laudable zeal of 

 Mr. Scoresby, jun. of Whitby, for the greatest part of the informa- 

 tion which he here lays before the Society. Although the tusk of 

 this animal is not uncommon, its skull has very rarely been brought 

 into this country ; and hence there has been little opportunity to 

 correct the erroneous account given by travellers on this subject, 

 who have generally maintained that the perfect narwhale has two of 

 these tusks, although it is very common for one of them to be broken 

 off. This opinion respecting the existence of two tusks has gained 

 a more general belief in this country, from the exhibition of a stuffed 

 narwhale for many years in the Leverian Museum, but in which it is 

 observed that the second tusk was artificially fastened in its place. 



The fact, says the author, is, that there is never more than one 

 tusk in the full-grown narwhale, and this is always in the left socket ; 

 but there is also observable, on the right side, another socket, in which 

 it is presumed that the milk-tusk had been contained, and afterwards 

 shed. 



A further observation of Mr. Scoresby's on this subject is, that 

 the tusk of this animal is confined to the male, and consequently 

 will not serve for a distinctive character of the species, as has hitherto 

 been supposed. 



A drawing of a female skull given to Sir Everard Home by Mr. 

 Scoresby accompanies this communication. Simple inspection of this 

 skull is represented by the author as sufficient to satisfy all doubts 

 upon the subject, as there is no place provided for an adult tusk, 

 although in all other respects it resembles that of the male, excepting 

 that the milk-tusk appears to have been placed on the left side in- 

 stead of the right. 



Along with the drawing of the female skull is a representation also 

 of a male skull now in the Hunterian Collection : and upon compa- 

 rison of them, it is observed that that of the female appears broader 

 in proportion to its length than that of the male, for want of that 

 prominence in the fore part that supports the tusk of the male, which, 

 it is observed, was in this instance five feet long, although it is evi- 

 dent, from the state of the sutures, that the animal had not attained 

 its full growth. 



Many other instances are well known to naturalists, of tusks con- 

 fined to the male of several species, as in the horse ; but since the 

 elephant is the only animal that can in bulk and proportional size of 

 tusk be compared with the narwhale, and since the female elephant 

 has tusks as well as the male, analogy had not suggested a doubt 

 concerning the existence of them in the female narwhale ; and hence 

 the observation of a fact that could not otherwise have been ascer- 

 tained becomes proportionally interesting. 



