BRITISH MAMMALS 



Genus Mesoplodon. 



SOWERBY'S WHALE. 



Mesoplodon bidens, Sowerby. 

 Plate 46. 



In this genus, comprising several species — only two of whieh are 

 British — the snout is elongated in the form of a beak, and in Sowerby's 

 Whale the adult male is characterised by a single pair of pointed teeth 

 placed rather far back in the lower mandible towards the middle of the 

 jaw, while in True's Beaked Whale they are situated at the extremity 

 of the lower mandible. Sowerby's Whale measures from 15 to 18 feet 

 in length, and in colour is usually a bluish black all over the body, with 

 many criss-cross lines and scratches on its surface, caused by the tentacles of 

 cuttlefish. 



The following is the description of the colour in a female specimen 

 stranded on the Norfolk coast at Overstrand, near Cromer, in December 

 1892, by the late Thomas Southwell and Dr. Harmer — now Sir Sidney 

 Harmer — in the Annals and Magazine of 3^tural History (ser. 6, 

 vol. xi., April 1893) : " Previous observers have described this animal 

 as being lighter beneath than above. This was distinctly not the case 

 in the specimen under consideration, which was of a uniform black 

 colour (with the slight exception shortly to be mentioned), the skin being 

 very smooth and polished, as has been described in other instances ; and 

 the fishermen in charge who had assisted in its capture informed us that 

 there was a perceptible bluish tint on the skin in a good light. 



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