14 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
and flattened above, so as almost to touch one another. Figures 
of the skulls of both are given in Bell’s ‘ British Quadrupeds,’ 
2nd ed., pp. 424, 427. 
The genus is further characterized by the rudimentary ap- 
pearance of a single pair of teeth in the lower jaw, and by the 
condition of the palate, which is covered with hard tubercles. 
The presence or absence of teeth in the Beaked Whale has 
been not unfrequently disputed, from the fact of their being 
often so covered and concealed by the gum as to lead an 
ordinary observer to suppose that they were absent; and although 
this speeies of whale is not so rare as many others which are 
included in the list of British Cetacea, those who have oppor- 
tunities of examining specimens do not always take the trouble to 
note the result of such examination. It may therefore be desirable 
to place on record the following observations. 
On the 15th September, 1877, I received information from 
Dr. Robert Brisco Owen, of Beaumaris, that late on the previous 
Tuesday evening (September 11th) the Menai Strait had been 
visited by a female whale, which he thought must be a Beaked 
Whale, or “ Bottle-nose.” She was entrapped among the rocks 
at Penmon, and was shot by some of the quarrymen there. 
Although several rifle-balls passed through her body they were 
not immediately fatal, and the men said that for some time 
“she fought desperately with her tail.” She was eventually 
killed, and towed by a boat to Penmon Pier, about a mile 
distant, thence taken to Bangor on a timber-waggon, and there 
publicly exhibited. 
The measurements taken were as follows :— 
Feet. Inches. 
Total length - . . - 24 - 
Greatest girth - - - 12 6 
Height of dorsal fin - - - d 4 
Length of pectoral fins - - 2 - 
Diameter of caudal fin - - 8 - 
Length of snout . : - 2 - 
From Dr. Owen’s description, and from a photograph which 
he kindly sent me, I was enabled to identify the whale as the 
Beaked Whale, Hyperoodon rostratus (H. bulskopf of Lacépéde), 
an identification which was confirmed by Professor Flower, whom 
I consulted. It was represented in the photograph as it lay on 
