214 PROFESSOR FLOWER ON THE RECENT ZIPHIOID WHALES. 



"Preliminary Notice of a Ziphioid Whale, probably Berardius arnuxii, stranded on the 18th of December, 1808, 

 on the Sea-beach, near New Brighton, Canterbury, Neiu Zealand. By Julius Haast, Ph.D., F.R.S. 



" Towards the latter part of December, last year, it was stated that a whale had been stranded on the sea- 

 beach, near the mouth of the Avon. Unfortunately the notice reached me too late to enable me to see the 

 body in its fresh state ; and when I went to the sea-beach the blubber had been cut off nearly a week, and the 

 animal was already in such an advanced state of putrefaction that the external appearance was greatly 

 destroyed. Before entering into a description of its affinities and peculiarities, I may be allowed to offer a few 

 observations on its capture. 



" Mr. William Walker, a fisherman, living near the mouth of the Avon, one mile and a half below New 

 Brighton, observed, on the 16th of December, early in the morning, that a huge animal was in the surf, making 

 the most strenuous efforts to return to deeper water. The fisherman had only a large sheath-knife with him, 

 with which he stabbed it several times, making it bleed very freely. Each time when the surf reached it, it 

 threw out a large quantity of water and sand from its blowers, like a fountain ; at the same time it moved its 

 tail with such vehemence that it threw its captor several times when he came too near it. Seeing that he 

 could not manage the large animal by himself, he returned home to fetch a rope, a larger knife, and assistance. 

 After having, with some trouble, placed the rope round the tail, and fastened it securely to the stump of a tree 

 on the beach, he inflicted with the large knife some deep wounds, from which the blood ran copiously ; but 

 the animal, notwithstanding this great loss of blood, still lived for fourteen hours. The fisherman also put a 

 large stick several times into its mouth, which, to use his own words, made the whale ' bellow like a bull.' 



" A very interesting fact may be deduced from the observations of Mrs. Walker, who accompanied her 

 husband on the second trip, She told her husband that each time he put the stick into the whale's mouth, she 

 could see several large teeth in front of its lower jaw, which, however, were not observed by any body else, 

 and the existence of which was only revealed when the skull was cleaned, when, in front of the lower jaw, two 

 large triangular and movable teeth on each side became exposed. It thus seems that the Ziphioid Whales, 

 when defending themselves from their enemies, or attacking their prey, have the power to protrude these four 

 teeth at will. Such an hypothesis gains still more in probability when we consider the nature of the principal 

 food of the animal, which, judging from the contents of its stomach, seems to consist almost exclusively of the 

 common Sea-Spider, or Octopus — a cephalopod which, as in the northern hemisphere, does not seem to be very 

 numerous along the coast. In the stomach of the whale in question there was about half a bushel of the 

 horny beaks of this cephalopod, which were nearly all of the same size. It would be rather difficult for any 

 whale to obtain possession of such an agile animal as the Octopus, had not nature furnished the former with 

 the means of taking good hold of it. It is interesting that the allied genera Ziphius and Hyperoodon, of the 

 northern hemisphere, feed also on similar species of cuttlefish, as I learn from a paper of Dr. J. E. Gray, of the 

 British Museum (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 422). Also the Sperm Whales are said to feed almost exclusively 

 on the same vivacious animal, which, by its agility and organization, is so well adapted to make great havoc 

 amongst the smaller inhabitants of the sea. And, as Dr. Gray justly observes, it proves, at the same time, 

 that these cephalopods, although apparently of rare occurrence, must in many localities be very numerous, as it 

 would otherwise be impossible to understand how they could furnish those huge whales with sufficient food. 



" When I proceeded to the beach the animal was still lying in the surf, partly covered with sand, but still 

 intact. I measured its length exactly, and found it to be 30 feet 6 inches from the tip of the nose to the end 

 of the lobes of the tail. The colour of the whole animal was of a deep velvety black, with the exception of the 

 lower portion of the belly, which had a greyish colour. The tail was 6 feet 6 inches broad, and had the usual 

 two falcate lobes. The pectoral fins were situated near the neck, a little above the middle of the body, and 

 were 17 inches broad and 19 inches long. They had a triangular form ; and one of them was buried in the 

 sand when I saw the animal first. The dorsal fin was unfortunately destroyed when I first saw the whale, so 

 that I cannot describe its form and position from my own observations ; but Mr, Walker told me that it was 

 small, had the usual falcate form, and was situated not far from the tail. 



