Apbil 22, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



631 



Mineral matter to the extent of about a dozen 

 grains of sand. 



The food in the stomach and crop was very 

 ■well preserved and it was possible to identify 

 with certainty some of the animals to species 

 — a condition which also obtained rather 

 unexpectedly for a portion of the food in 

 the gizzard, particularly the fresh-water 

 ■" shrimps." The question arises : How many 

 ■of these animals were deliberately pursued by 

 the duck? As far as the vertebrates are con- 

 cerned, there is no doubt but that they were 

 voluntarily taken. The presence of only a 

 small amount of vegetable matter favors a 

 like assumption for all of the invertebrates 

 mentioned, forms which at this time of year 

 •occur almost exclusively in the aquatic vege- 

 tation. If they were accidentally taken, it 

 ■would necessarily have been incidental to a 

 large amount of vegetable material. 



The beetles and water-boatmen are erratic 

 and rather rapid swimmers and in all prob- 

 ability would have escaped unless deliberately 

 •chased by the duck. The disagreeable acrid 

 •odor given off by the former evidently did not 

 protect them to any great degree from the 

 ibird. 



In all of the unbroken molluscan shells the 

 ■soft parts of the animals were preserved, indi- 

 cating that the animals were picked off from 

 the vegetation alive. 



The surprisingly large number of fresh- 

 water " shrimps," in view of their great abil- 

 ity to conceal themselves under shelter of al- 

 most any sort, shows without a doubt that 

 they were voluntarily taken; it also gives a 

 further indication of the importance of this 

 group of Crustacea in the economy of water- 

 loving vertebrates. 



If our assumption is correct that all of 

 these swiftly moving and seK-concealing 

 animals were taken voluntarily, we have an 

 •example of a keenness of vision capable of 

 discriminating between food and other sub- 

 stances to a degree not usually ascribed to the 

 flat-billed ducks. 



G. 0. Embody 



Cornell University 



' a large sperm whale captured in texas 

 waters' 



The capture on our coasts of a whale of any 

 species is a rare occurrence and worthy of 

 note. The present instance therefore seems 

 to me to deserve some especial attention. 



On March 10 of the present year I received 

 a telegram from Port Arthur, Texas, inform- 

 ing me of the capture of a huge sperm whale 

 near Sabine, a small town on the gulf, and 

 offering me every opportunity for making 

 a scientific examination of the prize. 



The following day I went down to Port 

 Arthur and found that the animal had suffo- 

 cated in the mud shallows and had been towed 

 ashore. On my arrival the carcass was on 

 exhibition on a board platform back of one 

 of the docks. Owing to the heat, decomposi- 

 tion had already set in and hence no oppor- 

 tunity was afforded of securing histological 

 material. I availed myself, however, of the 

 opportunity of taking a careful series of 

 measurements, which I here put on record. 

 This seems worth while, since there are few, 

 if any, authentic measurements of large 

 whales to be found in the literature. 



Total length (air line from tip of snout to 



extremity of tail flanges) 63 6 



Circumference in front of pectoral fins . . 37 



Width across tail flanges 16 7 



Tip of snout to base of pectoral fin 24 6 



Tip of snout to angle of mouth 17 1 



Dorso- ventral diameter of flat end of snout 10 4 



Tip of lower jaw to angle of mouth .... 10 10 



There were 48 teeth in the lower jaw, each 

 of which fitted into a fleshy depression of the 

 upper jaw, which was toothless except for the 

 occasional presence of very small rudimentary 

 tooth-like structures in the bottoms of these 

 depressions. 



On the night of March 12 the animal was 

 eviscerated, with the aid of a gang of about 

 twenty negroes and a steam winch, and the 

 abdominal cavity filled with ice. This was 

 dissection on a large scale and afforded a 



^ Contribution from the Zoological Laboratories, 

 University of Texas, No. 104. 



