7& THE BRITISH MAMMALS : THEIR GENERA AND SPECIES. 



things besides the mere capture of his brush. It is only in hunting 

 districts, however, that he is preserved to run for his life ; in other 

 parts the keepers trap him for his depredations amongst the game. 

 He is met with in all three kingdoms, and ranges all round the 

 northern hemisphere, for the American red fox, cross fox, and silver 

 fox, but not the kit fox, grey fox, or Arctic fox, are now generally 

 held to be mere varieties of the European form. 



Ziphius. Plate xxiii. GET A CEA . 



62. cavirostris, CUVIER'S WHALE. A pair of teeth at outer end of 

 lower jaw. 



Of this rare, widely-distributed whale, only one example is as 

 yet on record as having visited British waters, and that one got 

 stranded in the Shetlands. The beak is triangular, rather long, and 

 gradually tapering. At the outer end of the lower jaw are two 

 prominent teeth, and in the upper jaw are several small teeth 

 hidden in the gums and evidently of no use. The throat has one 



CUVIER'S WHALE. 

 (Ziphius cavirostris.) 



groove on each side ; the blow-hole is crescentic ; the flippers are 

 angular on the forward edge ; the dorsal is small and placed well 

 back, and the tail is deeply cleft. In colour this whale is black 

 above and white below, and it is under thirty feet in length and 

 has forty-nine vertebras, of which only the first three are united, 

 The name Ziphius is frorn the sword-like nature of the freak. 



