PHYSETERID.E 253 
it was long considered that they belonged to different species— 
the male form having been described as H. lutifrons. The length 
of an adult male reaches 30 feet, while that of the female does not 
exceed 24 feet. 
The Hyperoéddon, sometimes called “Bottlenose,” a name also 
vaguely given to several species of Dolphin, is a regular inhabitant 
of the North Atlantic, passing the summer in the Spitzbergen seas 
and going farther south in winter. It resembles the Sperm Whale 
in possessing a large store of oil in the upper part of the head, 
which yields spermaceti when refined; on this account, and also 
for the sake of the blubber, which supplies an oil almost indis- 
tinguishable from sperm-oil, this Whale has been the object of a 
regular chase in recent years. 
The following account of its habits is taken from a paper 
by Captain D. Gray, published in the Zoological Suciety’s Proceedings 
for 1882 :— 
“These Whales are occasionally met with immediately after 
leaving the Shetland Isles in March, and north across the ocean 
until the ice is reached, near the margin of which they are found 
in the greatest numbers; but they are seldom seen amongst it. 
Although it is not in their nature to keep in amongst the ice, they 
like to frequent the open bays for the shelter it gives them from 
the sea. Sometimes a point of ice overlaps them; it is then only 
that they are seen going out again towards the ocean. They are 
also to be met with from the entrance of Hudson’s Straits and up 
Davis’s Straits, as far as 70° N. lat., and down the east side 
round Cape Farewell, all round Iceland, north along the Greenland 
ice to 77° N. lat.; also along the west coast of Spitzbergen, 
and east to Cherry Island in lat. 72° N. and long. 19° E. Beyond 
these limits I have never seen them; but doubtless they are to be 
found as far as the Straits of Belle Isle on the west, and east to 
Nova Zembla. From the fact that they are not seen in summer 
farther south than a day’s sail from the ice, it would appear that 
they migrate south in the autumn, and north again in the spring. 
They are gregarious in their habits, going in herds of from four 
to ten. It is rare to see more than the latter number together, 
although many different herds are frequently in sight at the same 
time. The adult males very often go by themselves; but young 
bulls, cows, and calves, with an old male as a leader, are sometimes 
seen together. They are very unsuspicious, coming close alongside 
the ship, round about underneath the boats, until their curiosity 
is satisfied. . . . They vary in colour from black in the young to 
light brown in the older animals. The very old turn almost yellow, 
the beak and front of the head being quite white, with a white 
band round their necks ; all of them are grayish-white on the belly. 
They can leap many feet out of the water, even having time while 
