WHALE HUNTING WITH GUN AND CAMERA 



men of their experience who have hunted the animals 

 in the Atlantic could hardly be mistaken, and I feel 

 certain that before long specimens will be taken in 

 Pacific waters. 



Whether or not they will prove to be specifically 

 identical with the Atlantic bottlenose it is, of course, 

 impossible to say. So far as present information ex- 

 tends there appears to be but a sinjle species, the 

 Hypcroodon rostratum, described by Miiller in 1776. 

 Because of the great changes which age and sex pro- 

 duce in color and in the shape of the head, numerous 

 names have been given to individuals which have all 

 proved to be specifically identical with the common 

 form, H. rostratum. 



Although the bottlenose is the only commercially 

 important member of the family Ziphiidae, and is con- 

 sequently the best known, the other species of this 

 strange group are not less interesting. All the ziphi- 

 oids are characterized by the tail which has no notch 

 in the center and by the one or two pairs of teeth 

 in the lower jaw, near or at the end, which sometimes 

 develop in a most unusual way. 



In one species, Layard's whale (Mesoplodon lay- 

 ardi), the two flat, strap-like teeth in the lower jaw 

 grow upward to a height of eight or ten inches and 

 sometimes bend over the long pointed snout, prevent- 

 ing the animal from opening its mouth more than an 

 inch or two. How the whale feeds when the jaws 

 are thus locked is a mystery. 



In one species, Mcsoplodon grayi, besides the pair 

 of functional teeth near the end of the lower jaw, a 



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