326 WAITE 
and dense bone, the texture of these vestigial bones is spongy and 
they can easily be pierced with a pin. 
It is not possible to give the weight of the entire skeleton, but 
it has been estimated at 9 tons. Some of the bones were weighed 
for freight purposes, the cranium, exclusive of the maxillz, nasal 
bones, etc., weighed r ton 9 cwt., and the lower jaws together, r ton 
5 cwt. 
The baleen cannot be described, for, as before-mentioned, it 
had been lost out of the mouth, but it would be very similar to that 
shown on plate LX., which represents two pieces from another blue 
whale, stranded at Motanau, which I afterwards examined, the 
piece on the right of the picture shows the baleen as seen from the 
outside; the inner side of the plates is hidden by the hair-like 
fringes seen in the piece on the left. The longest plates measure less 
than three feet and the whale was 56 feet in length. 
THE ALLANDALE WHALE. 
(Mesoplodon layardt'. 
Plate EX. 
On March 22nd, 1912, Mr. James Davenport, of Lyttelton, 
informed me that a ‘‘ Bottle-nosed Whale,” 20 feet in length, had 
been stranded at Allandale in front of his house and was then alive. 
On arriving at Allandale, somewhat later, I found the 
“animal to be a Strap-toothed Whale. Mr. Davenport told me 
that the whale was first seen by him at 7 o'clock in the morning 
and it was then in difficulties, the rapidly falling tide cutting off its 
retreat to deeper water and leaving it stranded on the mudflat. 
By this time Mr. Davenport was abreast of the whale and as soon 
as it saw him and realised its predicament it emitted a series of 
roars, the noise being similar to that of asealion. Ziphiioid whales 
are known to possess a voice, one species roaring like a bull another 
lowing like a cow while a third is described as sobbing. In its 
fury to free itself, the whale lashed the water into foam, and scoured 
out a deep hole in the mud, in which it lay when I first sawit. At this 
time the water was about 12 inches in depth, but it rapidly receded 
leaving the unfortunate animal in a pool of water in which it lived 
for aconsiderable time. As the tide again rose we were in readiness 
with a motor boat and tackle and were pleased to find that the 
carcase floated, for my experience with some of the dolphins is that 
they sink when shot. The towage to Lyttelton was safely accom- 
plished, the proceedings greatly interesting numbers of dog fishes 
which were kept at a reasonable distance to prevent mutilation of 
the carcase. 
