. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL HISTORY. true. In its stomach were fonncl half a bushel of the homy beaks of a species of Octopus. Professor Flower has described its skeleton, and affirms that it is truly ziphioid in character, but on the whole approaches nearer to the tiiie Dolphins: whereas the Bottlehead is modified in the direction of the Sperm Whales. The Bottlehead, or Common Beaked Whale,* is a constant visitor to the coasts of Britain, many having been recoi-ded of its capture, and one classical example came under the scalpel of the celebr
. Cassell's natural history. Animals; Animal behavior. NATURAL HISTORY. true. In its stomach were fonncl half a bushel of the homy beaks of a species of Octopus. Professor Flower has described its skeleton, and affirms that it is truly ziphioid in character, but on the whole approaches nearer to the tiiie Dolphins: whereas the Bottlehead is modified in the direction of the Sperm Whales. The Bottlehead, or Common Beaked Whale,* is a constant visitor to the coasts of Britain, many having been recoi-ded of its capture, and one classical example came under the scalpel of the celebrated anatomist John Hunter. It inhabits the breadth of the North Atlantic, and accord- ing to Eschricht veiy probably spends the summer fai- north in the Polar Sea, and migrates southwai-ds towards autumn or winter. Dr. R. Brown regards it as rare in the Greenland Seas, three or four, however, being occasionally seen at the mouth of Davis Strait. On the French and Scandinavian coasts small herds have sometimes ran ashore. The female gives birth to a single young one in autumn. They feed chiefly on cuttle-fish, but also upon soft-bodied Trepangs {Holuthuria). It ranges from twenty to forty feet in length, accorduig to age and sex, and is of a unifomi blackish hue, lighter beneath, but not white. The skull is most peculiar in having two crests at the occiput, of unequal size and figure, and the cheek-bones at the root of the beak raised into a pair of huge eleva- tions. The upper jaw is toothless, and the lower jaw has only two or three small concealed teeth. The neck vertebi-se are united ; and moreover the stomach is remarkable even among Cetacea for the number of chambers it contains, there being some six or seven divisions. THE SPEEil WHALES, OR CACHALOTS (). This family includes but two forms : the valuable Sperm Whale {Physeter) and the Short-headed Whale [Kogict). They are unlike in many respects, but they agi-ee in having no teeth, or only rudimentary o
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