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Show 1882.] WHALES OF T H E GENUS HYPEROODON. 723 bidens, butskopf, dalei, borealis, &C.1; and, though allied to Berardius, Mesoplodon, and Ziphius, and also, though less closely, to Physeter, its strongly marked differential characters have, since the early part of the century, thoroughly established its generic isolation. It is well known to pass the summer months in the Arctic Seas which lie to the north of the Atlantic, and to migrate southward in the autumn, although its actual winter quarters do not seem to have been ascertained. Scarcely a year passes without one or more specimens having been taken or stranded on some part of the coasts of the British Isles, usually in the mouths of September and October. Similar captures have also been recorded upon other parts of the coasts of Eastern Europe, such as Norway, North Germany, Holland, and the north of France. From this point they seem to leave the shore; for no authentic instances are recorded of their occurrence on the west coast of France, or of Spain, or in the Mediterranean. Most of the specimens thus seen, or at all events taken, are solitary individuals, generally young; but not unfrequently two are met with together, an adult female accompanied by her young, the former often falling a victim to her maternal solicitude for the welfare of the latter. Of the external characters of this common form of Hyperoodon, which usually attains a length of from 20 to 25 feet, many descriptions and drawings have been published ; and there are few osteological museums of any importance which do not possess a skeleton of it. The earliest figure, made with really scientific accuracy, is that published by John Hunter in the ' Philosophical Transactions' for 1787, from the individual (a female 21 feet long) taken in the Thames in 1783, the skeleton of which is still preserved in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Hunter, in his classical memoir on the Cetacea, says, speaking of this specimen:-"The one which I examined must have been young [as is proved by the condition of the skeleton] ; for I have a skull of tbe same kind nearly three times as large, which must have belonged to an animal thirty or forty feet long." This skull has unfortunately not been preserved ; but portions, evidently belonging to the same individual, are still in the Museum. Of these the anterior part of the lower jaw, of great density and containing the two teeth, the great age of which is attested by the solid condition of their bases, was catalogued by Professor Owen as that of an "immature" animal2. No notice appears ever to have been taken of Hunter's reference to this large specimen, or of the existence of any form of Hyperoodon different from that commonly known, and of which more detailed descriptions were given by Vrolik 3, Wesmael *, Eschricht5, Thomp- 1 JBalana rostrata, Chemniz, Beschaft. der Berlin. Gesellschaft Naturforscher, iv. p. 183 (1779); Delphinus bidcntatus and Delphinus butskopf Bonnaterre, 'Cetologie,' p. 25 (1789); Delphinus diodon, Lacepede, 'Hist. nat. des Cetaces," p. 309 ; and Hyperoodon butskopf, idem, ibid. p. 319 (1804). - Descriptive Catalogue of Osteological Series, vol. ii. no. 2480 (1853). 3 Nat. Verhand. Maatsch. Haarlem, 2. Verz., D. 5 (1849). Nouv. Mem. de lAcad. Roy. cle Bruxelles. xiii. 4. p. 1 (1841). TJntersuchungen iiber die nordische Wallthiere, 1849. |
