Page:The Zoologist, 3rd series, vol 2 (1878).djvu/36

14 and flattened above, so as almost to touch one another. Figures of the skulls of both are given in Bell's 'British Quadrupeds,' 2nd ed., pp. 424, 427.

The genus is further characterized by the rudimentary appearance of a single pair of teeth in the lower jaw, and by the condition of the palate, which is covered with hard tubercles.

The presence or absence of teeth in the Beaked Whale has been not unfrequently disputed, from the fact of their being often so covered and concealed by the gum as to lead an ordinary observer to suppose that they were absent; and although this species of whale is not so rare as many others which are included in the list of British Cetacea, those who have opportunities of examining specimens do not always take the trouble to note the result of such examination. It may therefore be desirable to place on record the following observations.

On the 10th September, 1877, I received information from Dr. Robert Brisco Owen, of Beaumaris, that late on the previous Tuesday evening (September 11th) the Menai Strait had been visited by a female whale, which he thought must be a Beaked Whale, or "Bottle-nose." She was entrapped among the rocks at Penmon, and was shot by some of the quarrymen there. Although several rifle-balls passed through her body they were not immediately fatal, and the men said that for some time "she fought desperately with her tail." She was eventually killed, and lowed by a boat to Penmon Pier, about a mile distant, thence taken to Bangor on a timber-waggon, and there publicly exhibited.

The measurements taken were as follows: —

From Dr. Owen's description, and from a photograph which he kindly sent me, I was enabled to identify the whale as the Beaked Whale, Hyperoodon rostratus (H. butskopf of Lacépède), an identification which was confirmed by Professor Flower, whom I consulted. It was represented in the photograph as it lay on