252 NATURAL HISTORY. 



true. In its stomach were found half a bushel of the horny beaks of a species of Octopus. Professor 

 Flower has described its skeleton, and affirms that it is truly ziphioid in character, but on the whole 

 approaches nearer to the true Dolphins; whereas the Bottlehead is modified in the direction of the Sperm 

 Whales. THE BOTTLEHEAD, OK COMMON BEAKED WHALE,* is a constant visitor to the coasts of Britain, 

 many instances having been recorded of its capture, and one classical example came under the scalpel 

 of the celebrated anatomist John Hunter. It inhabits the breadth of the North Atlantic, and accord- 

 ing to Eschricht very probably spends the summer far north in the Polar Sea, and migrates southwards 

 towards autumn or winter. Dr. R. Brown regards it as rare in the Greenland Seas, three or four, 

 however, being occasionally seen at the mouth of Davis Strait. On the French and Scandinavian 

 coasts small herds have sometimes run ashore. The female gives birth to a single young one in 

 autumn. They feed chiefly on cuttle-fish, but also upon soft-bodied Trepangs (Holothuria). It ranges 

 from twenty to forty feet in length, according to age and sex, and is of a uniform blackish hue, lighter 

 beneath, but not white. The skull is most peculiar in having two crests at the occiput, of most 

 unequal size and figure, and the cheek-bones at the root of the beak raised into a pair of huge eleva- 

 tions. The upper jaw is toothless, and the lower jaw has only two or three small concealed teeth. 

 The neck vertebrae are united ; and moreover the stomach is remarkable even among Cetacea for the 

 number of chambers it contains, there being some six or seven divisions. 



THE SPERM WHALES, OR CACHALOTS (PHYSETERID^E) . 



This family includes but two forms : the valuable Sperm Whale (Pkyseter) and the Short-headed 

 Whale (Kogia). They are unlike in many respects, but they agree in having no teeth, or only 

 rudimentary ones in the upper jaw, while the lower jaw is provided with a series of conical teeth. 

 The dorsal fin is small, either hump-like or high and falcate ; the flippers are very short, and situated 

 along with the small eye near the angle of the great mouth. The neck vertebrae are fused together. 

 The upper surface of the broad shoe-shaped skull has a large basin-like cavity, wherein in the soft 

 parts the material known as spermaceti is lodged. The blow-hole is single, and in the case of the 

 Sperm Whale is situated quite in front, but is placed farther back in the Kogia. In both, however, 

 it is somewhat of any-shape obliquely placed, the left extremity being much wider than the right. 



THE SPERM WHALE, OR CACHALOT.t Next to the Greenland Whale the Cachalot is by far 

 the most important animal of the Whale tribe in a commercial point of view. A rare interest, 

 moreover, is attached to it from the daring deeds and hair-breadth escapes of the whalers pursuing it, 

 inasmuch as in certain cases it is among the fiercest of the Cetacea. At times it not only attacks 

 boats and their crews in pursuit of it. but there are also well-authenticated instances 

 of ships themselves being assailed and sunk by this powerful monster of the deep. 

 It attains a size varying from forty to seventy feet, the average of old males being 

 about sixty feet, while the females are much smaller. It is black above, lighter on 

 the sides, and silvery-grey on the belly parts. Its head is of enormous propor- 

 tions, 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. As shown in the woodcut, 

 each tooth is conical and slightly curved, hollow at the base, but elsewhere it is 

 dense and solid. 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 Croco- 

 dile's mouth ; but besides the remarkable lower jaw, the Sperm Whale's skull rivets 

 attention from the extensive basin-shaped spermaceti reservoir already alluded to. 

 'SPERM WHALE. 15 '^ he tliroat i s very l ar g e *& compared with that of the Greenland Whale. It 

 was believed that there were several species of Cachalot, but only one is now 

 acknowledged, the Kogia really belonging to a different genus. The Sperm Whale is seldom found in 

 inland waters, but is met with in all the oceans, from the Polar to the Antarctic, though it chiefly 

 inhabits the tropical or sub-tropical seas. Among the favourite resorts of the whalers are the coasts 



* Hyperoodon restrains. t Physeter macrocephalus. 



