CUVIER'S WHALE 



chiefly of squids, the flanks of the animal were marked with various lines 

 and scratches caused by the tentacles of these creatures. In life the 

 colour of the light parts of the head and shoulders was probably a purer 

 white, as Mr. W. P. Pycraft, to whom I am indebted for many useful 

 notes on the cetaceans, tells me that he once observed two Cuvier's Whales 

 in the sea off" the Wexford coast, and while watching them from above 

 was struck with the shining whiteness of the head and shoulders as the 

 animals moved through the clear water. According to Sir Sidney Harmer's 

 Report on Cetacea Stranded on the British Coasts during 1916, an example 

 of this species occurred on the Cornish coast on June 7th of that year. 



Cuvier's Whale has an extremely wide distribution, roving from the 

 British coasts and those of the Mediterranean through the Atlantic, Indian, 

 and Pacific Oceans to New Zealand, where it has been obtained on several 

 occasions. A young New Zealand Ziphius^ described by Messrs. Scott and 

 Parker in the Transactions of the Zoological Society^ vol. xii., was coloured 

 brown on the sides of the head and purple black on the back. The 

 drawing in the Plate was made from the model in the British Museum 

 (Natural History). 



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