THE NATURAL 



FOR 1918. ' 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



SPKRM WHALES. 



In The Animal World for December, Mr. Donald Payler 

 has an article entitled ' Facts and Fables about Whales.' In 

 this he gives the accompanying illustration, which we are 

 kindly permitted to reproduce. He states that 'sperm whales' 



Three conceptions of the Sperm Whale : — (A) as it appears ; (B) from 

 Pennant's 'British Zoology,' 1776; (C) from Dewhurst's 'Nat. History of 

 Cetacea,' 1834. 



appear to feed almost exclusively upon cuttlefish, though they 

 are known also to cat medium-sized fishes, such as the bonito, 

 albicore and rock-cod. We do not, of course, know how 

 large the prey consumed in exceptional cases may be, but it is 

 said that the throat is capacious enough to accommodate the 

 body of a man. 



MARTIN SIMPSON. 



We learn from The Yorkshire Observer that at the recent 

 annual meeting of the Yorkshire Geological Society, held at 

 Leeds, a paper was read by Mr. T. Sheppard upon the life and 



1918 Jan. 1. 



