WHALES AND THEIR CLASSIFICATION 21 



of a fishery, though, as already stated, it is still not 

 infrequently captured with other species, even in the 

 waters surrounding the British Isles. 



Of the other Physeterids the only one of economic 

 importance is the " Bottlenose " (Hyperoodon 

 rostratus\ a regular inhabitant of the North Atlantic, 

 where it passes the summer in Spitsbergen waters, 

 going farther south in winter. Captain Gray 1 

 says: " These whales are occasionally met with 

 immediately after leaving the Shetlands in March 

 and north across the ocean till the ice is reached." 

 They are met with from the entrance to Hudson 

 Strait and up Davis Strait as far as 70 N., and 

 down the east side round Cape Farewell, all round 

 Iceland, north along the Greenland Ice to 77 N., 

 also along the west coast of Spitsbergen, and east to 

 Bear Island. In the period 1905-13 twenty-four 

 Bottlenose Whales were captured in Scottish waters. 

 The second family of Odontoceti, the Platanistidae, 

 are small Cetacea, inhabiting the rivers and estuaries 

 of certain rivers in the tropics. They are of no 

 commercial importance. 



The third and last family, the Delphinidas, com- 

 prise the porpoises and dolphins of our waters as 

 well as the Narwhal of Arctic seas. None of the 

 members of this family is the object of a regular 

 fishery, except the Pilot Whale, Ca'ing Whale or 

 Grindhval of the Faroes and the Shetlands, which 

 at times is the object of a regular fiord fishery well 

 described by Miiller. 2 



1 Proceedings Zoological Society, 1882. 



3 " Whale Fishing- in the Faroe Isles,"- by Sysselmand H. C. 



