BEAKED WHALE IN THE MENAI STRAIT. 13 
should we omit to indicate as special sources of information the 
“Recent Memoirs of the Cetacea,” edited by Professor Flower, 
and published by the Ray Society, and Professor Van Beneden’s 
‘Osteographie des Cétacés ;’ while the excellent chapters devoted 
to British Whales and Dolphins in the second edition of Bell’s 
‘History of British Quadrupeds’ afford an amount of information 
not elsewhere to be obtained in so concise a form. 
—_— 0—— 
ON A SPECIMEN OF THE BEAKED WHALE RECENTLY 
KILLED IN THE MENAI STRAIT. 
By Henry Lez, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 
Tat Ziphioid Whales, to which group the present species 
belongs, occupy an intermediate position between the Cachelots 
and the Porpoises and Dolphins, and are distinguished from other 
toothed whales by many important structural differences. 
“Tn the upper jaw there are no functional teeth, which are only 
occasionally represented by rudiments which never cut the gums, 
while those of the lower jaw are reduced to either one or two pairs, 
which are often greatly developed, but sometimes remain almost 
rudimentary. The snout is produced into a more or less distinctly 
marked ‘beak,’ the flippers are short and rounded, and the dorsal 
fin placed very far back. The blow-hole is crescentic, and two 
diverging furrows in the skin of the throat assume the form of the 
letter V with its angle directed forward.” * 
Four genera are recognized by Professor Flower, in his memoir 
on this group of whales,t of which the first and best marked is 
that now under notice, Hyperoodon. 
This genus is characterized by its rounded forehead, distinct 
beak, and comparatively small mouth, and especially by the 
presence of two bony crests on the upper surface of the maxillary 
bones of the skull, which rise nearly as high as the occipital 
portion. 
In the present species these raised crests are sharp- ‘paeed 
above, and separated by a considerable interval. In an allied 
species, Hyperoodon latifrons (Gray), they are much thickened 
* Bell's ‘ History of British Quadrupeds, including the Cetacea,’ 2nd ed., p. 421. 
+ Trans. Zool. Soc., 1872, pp. 203-—234. 
