338 THE WHALES, DOLPHINS, AND MANATEES 



The Bottlehead or Common Beaked Whale belongs to what 

 are called the Ziphoid Whales, the common characters of which 

 are long narrow beaks, elevated heads, a small but well-marked 

 dorsal fin placed behind the middle of the back, short flippers 

 with rounded extremity, a pair of short throat furrows of a V-shape, 

 a single somewhat crescentic blow-hole placed crosswise in the 

 middle of the head, absence of or only rudimentary teeth in the 

 upper jaws, and one or two pairs of very peculiar teeth in 

 the lower jaws. The living forms are rare, and range from fifteen 

 to thirty feet in length. They appear to be the descendants of 

 an ancient family that existed in large numbers at the geological 

 period when the Norfolk Crag was forming, for their fossil remains 

 are very numerous in these formations. The Bottlehead Whale 

 is a constant visitor to our shores, and inhabits the breadth of 

 the North Atlantic, feeding chiefly on cuttlefish and the soft- 

 bodied holothurians. It ranges from twenty to forty feet in 

 length, according to age and sex, and is of a uniform blackish 

 hue. The upper jaw is toothless, and the lower jaw has only two 

 or three small concealed teeth. In the autumn the female gives 

 birth to a single young one. 



Next to the Greenland Whale, the Sperm Whale, or Cachalot, 

 is by far the most important animal of the whale tribe from a 

 commercial point of view. It is a powerful monster, attaining 

 a size varying from forty to seventy feet in length. It is black 

 above, lighter on the sides, and silver-grey beneath. Its head 

 is of enormous proportions, forming nearly half the bulk of the 

 animal. The snout is extraordinarily dilated and terminates 

 abruptly ; the upper jaw quite overhangs the lower, and the 

 bones of the latter are united close together for a long distance, 

 and are furnished with from twenty to thirty teeth on each side. 

 When the lower jaw is closed the teeth fit into hollows in the upper 

 lips, in this respect somewhat resembling what takes place in 

 the crocodile's mouth ; but besides the remarkable lower jaw, the 

 Sperm Whale's skull rivets attention from the extensive basin- 

 shaped spermaceti reservoir. The throat is very large as compared 

 with that of the Greenland Whale. The Sperm Whale is met with 

 in all the oceans, from the Polar to the Antarctic, though it chiefly 

 inhabits the tropical and subtropical seas. It appears to be a 

 migratory animal, though its migrations are by no means clearly 



