Part 12

CUVIER’S WHALE (Ziphius cavirostris, Cuv.; Epiodon desmarestii, J. E. Gray, ‘Cat. Seals and Whales’), another of this remarkable group, has been met with once on the coast of Shetland, and it, or its remains, have been found about five or six times in other parts of Europe, and also, it is believed, at the Cape of Good Hope, the east coast of South America, and New Zealand. Professor Turner is of opinion that the geographical range of Ziphius cavirostris equals that possessed by the Spermaceti Whale. In colour this species is believed to resemble Sowerby’s Whale; it has two teeth, one on each side of the lower jaw, close to the extremity.

From Trans. Roy. Irish Acad.]

Cuvier established the genus Ziphius in 1825, from a fossil skull found on the coast of Provence in 1804, which he believed at the time to belong to an extinct animal.

SOWERBY’S WHALE.

One more British Ziphioid is known, SOWERBY’S WHALE (Mesoplodon sowerbiensis, De Blainville); it was first described from a specimen which came ashore at Brodie, Elginshire, in 1800, and has since been found three times in Ireland; there is also a skull in the Museum of Science and Art at Edinburgh, which belonged to a specimen believed to have been captured somewhere on the Scotch coast; the remains of five others are preserved in various Continental museums.

Of the individual which came on shore on the coast of Kerry, in March, 1864, Mr. Andrews has given a description in the “Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy,” for April, 1867. Fortunately, it came under the notice of Dr. Busteed, of Castle Gregory, who being interested in zoology, and aware of the great importance of the occurrence, photographed the head in several positions while it was yet fresh: Dr. Busteed’s photographs were reproduced in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. The head had unfortunately been removed immediately behind the frontal portion of the skull, the base of which is lost, as are also the other parts of the skeleton. The total length of the animal was about fifteen feet, the two teeth largely developed and projecting like the tusks of a boar. On the under part of the throat the V-shaped furrow was very conspicuous. Sowerby’s specimen was coloured black above, and nearly white below. The skin was smooth like satin. “Immediately under the cuticle the sides were completely covered with white vermicular streaks in every direction, which at a little distance appeared like irregular cuts with a sharp instrument.”

DELPHINIDÆ.

The remaining family, Delphinidæ, as before stated, is a very numerous one. It has ten representatives in the British fauna, contained in seven genera, the first of which, according to the arrangement I have adopted, is that of Monodon.

THE NARWHAL.

The NARWHAL (Monodon monoceros, Linn.) is a native of the Polar seas seldom leaving the ice; stragglers have occurred three times on the British coast, one in 1648 in the Firth of Forth, another came ashore alive at Boston, in 1800; the third was taken in Shetland in 1808.

This species is very numerous in the frozen seas to the north of latitude 65°, and is remarkable for the enormous development in the male of the left canine tooth, which is projected forward in the form of a tusk or spear, reaching to the length of six or eight feet, while the right tusk remains abortive, and does not pierce the alveolus. The spear is of fine compact ivory, hollow for the greater part of its length, grooved spirally from left to right, along its outer surface, the spiral generally making five or six turns, but smooth at the end, and bluntly pointed. Although the right canine is rarely developed, a few examples have occurred in which both tusks were present; the female is very rarely furnished with this appendage.

Mr. J. W. Clark, in a paper on a ‘Skeleton of Narwhal, with two fully-developed tusks,’ writes as follows:--“The skulls of the Toothed Whales are generally asymmetrical, being twisted more or less, usually towards the left. This peculiarity is especially observable in Monodon. One would expect it to be greatly exaggerated in the skulls of the males, where the left tusk alone is developed, and the left maxillary is, in consequence, very large, and the right proportionately small; but it does not seem to be affected by the absence or presence of the teeth. Female skulls, where neither tusk is developed, are equally twisted, and so are the bidental skulls ... the increased size of the right maxillary does not appear to affect the rest of the skull.”

Mr. Clark enumerates eleven skulls of the Narwhal in which both tusks are developed; four at Copenhagen, and one each in the museum of Hamburg, Christiania, Amsterdam, Weimar, Hull, Paris, and Cambridge; to these must be added a twelfth, which was brought from Prince Regent’s Inlet, by Capt. Gravill, of the “Camperdown,” and is now in the Dundee Museum.

Not long since I saw preserved in a country mansion, the tusk of a Narwhal measuring 7 ft. 5 in. long; it was carefully kept in a long case resembling a barber’s pole, and bore a ticket attached, which stated that it was “Bequeathed in 1561 by the Countess of ----, to her daughter ----.” No doubt at the time this formed a valuable bequest, as even royal and ecclesiastical dignitaries are said to have esteemed these strange objects (probably associated with the mythical unicorn), as “good against” poisons and fevers, and prized them accordingly. The use of this remarkable appendage appears very doubtful; it has been conjectured that it serves to stir up food from the bottom of the sea, in which case the female would be badly off without it; or that it is employed to keep breathing-holes open in the ice, and an instance is related in support of this view, in which hundreds were seen at an ice-hole protruding their heads to breathe, but it is not clear whether they made the hole for themselves, or whether they were attracted by it, particularly as there were numbers of White Whales with them. It seems certain, however, that the tusk, which is frequently found in a broken condition, is used for purposes of attack and defence. Like the horn of the stag, it is, no doubt, a sexual distinction.

The Narwhal is very social in its habits, great numbers being often met with together; its food consists of cuttlefish and crustaceans. The length of the full-grown animal is about 16 feet, the upper parts gray, the sides and belly white, and the whole animal spotted with black and gray. The only authentic figure of the Narwhal with which I am acquainted is that given by Scoresby; this is so well known from frequent reproduction that it is not necessary to give it here.

THE WHITE WHALE.

The WHITE WHALE, or BELUGA (Delphinapterus leucas, Pallas), like the preceding species, is a native of the Polar seas, where it is common; it is abundant in the White and Kara Seas, and in the Gulf of Obi; on the coast of Norway it is occasionally met with. From Scotland, five individuals have been recorded, but it must be regarded as only an accidental straggler. On the east coast of America it is found as far south as the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where, as in the White Sea, it delights in ascending the mouths of large rivers.

No English examples have been met with, but, in the British Association Report on the Fauna of Devonshire (1869, pp. 84 and 85) occurs the following passage. “Mr. H. P. Gosse writes:--‘On August 5th, 1832, I was returning from Newfoundland to England, and was sailing up the British Channel close to the land, when, just off Berry Head, I saw under the ship’s bows a large cetacean of a milky white hue, but appearing slightly tinged with green from the intervening stratum of clear water. It was about 16 feet long, with a round bluff head. It continued to swim along before the vessel’s head, a few yards beneath the surface, for about ten minutes, maintaining our rate of speed, which was five knots an hour, all which time I enjoyed from the bow-sprit a very good view of it. It could have been no other than the White Whale, the B. borealis of Lesson.’” Mr. Alston also states that Mr. J. G. Gordon informed him that in June, 1878, “he saw a large white cetacean, presumably of this species, in Loch Etive.”

In a communication to the Zoological Society of London, quoting a letter from the Rev. Dr. Joass, of Golspie, Professor Flower thus describes the singular capture of one of these rare visitants to our seas:--“It was found close to the salmon-nets, near the Little Ferry, about three miles to the westward of Dunrobin, Sutherlandshire, at ebb tide, on Monday, June 9th, 1879, caught by the tail between two short posts, to which a stake-net was fastened; and a salmon, of 18 lbs. weight, which was supposed to have been the object of its pursuit, was found in front of it. It measured 12 ft. 6 in. in length. The tail was 34 inches across, and the flippers 17 inches long. It was a female [adult] and had twenty teeth in the upper jaw, and sixteen in the lower. the stomach contained a few flakes of fish, which, from their size and colour, might have been salmon.... I have heard since, that two days before its capture, it was seen off Cracaig by Brora fishermen, who were lying at their lines. At first they thought it was a human body; as it approached, against the ebb, they took it for a ghost!” On examining the skull of this specimen, Professor Flower discovered that, at some previous period of the animal’s existence, the atlas had been completely dislocated, “the whole of the surfaces, formerly in apposition, being now free from each other,” an injury to an aquatic animal as difficult to account for as it is to imagine the possibility of its surviving, but affording a remarkable instance of the creature’s recuperative power.

The Whales exhibited at the Westminster Aquarium, in September, 1877, and again in May, 1878, belonged to this species; unfortunately they did not live to equal in docility and intelligence a specimen exhibited in America, which “learned to recognize his keeper, and would allow himself to be handled by him, and at the proper time would come and put his head out of the water to receive the harness” by which he was attached to a car in which he drew a young lady round the tank,--or to take his food. A specimen of Delphinus tursio, which was for a time with him in the same tank, is said to have been even more docile than this remarkable animal. The adult Beluga is pure white, and a “school” of these animals “leaping and playing in the calm, dark sea,” is said to be a very beautiful sight. In summer the Greenlanders kill great numbers, extracting the oil and drying the flesh for winter use; in Russia, the prepared skin is much used for reins or other parts of harness requiring great strength and lightness; in this country, too, under the name of porpoise-hide, it is now extensively used, and the salted skins sell for from 3s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. per lb. The whale-ship, “Arctic,” of Dundee, brought home 600 skins from Davis Strait, in the season of 1880. The length of the full-grown animal is about 16 ft., and its food consists of fishes, Crustacea, and Cephalapods.

THE GRAMPUS, OR KILLER.

The common GRAMPUS, or KILLER (Orca gladiator, Lacépède), (fig. 23) is a well-known and widely-dispersed species, being found in both the North Atlantic and Pacific Seas. Andrew Murray says “the common Grampus tumbles through the heavy waves all the way from Britain to Japan, viâ the North-west Passage.” In the British seas it is frequently met with, and has occurred in several instances on the coast of Norfolk. This species is very fierce, its appetite insatiable, and carnivorous in the strictest sense of the word; to the Greenland and White Whale, as well as to Porpoises and Seals, it is an implacable enemy, and follows them ruthlessly. Dr. Brown says, “the White Whale and Seals often run ashore, in terror of this cetacean, and I have seen Seals spring out of the water when pursued by it. The whalers hate to see it, for its arrival is the signal for every Whale to leave that portion of the ice.” Eschricht took out of the stomach of a Killer, 21 ft. long, which came ashore in Jutland, no less than thirteen common porpoises and fourteen Seals.

The rounded, compact form of this species gives the idea of great strength and swiftness, and the beautifully-polished glossy black skin of the back contrasting with the equally pure and well-defined white of the lower parts has a very striking effect; over the eye there is a well-defined white spot. It is a very handsome species, but there is something in its appearance which seems to indicate its cruel nature. Thirteen or fourteen strong, slightly curved teeth are found on either side of both jaws; the flippers are broad and oval-shaped, the dorsal fin high and falcate, particularly in the male.

As my object is mainly that of assisting in the identification of casual visitants to our shores, rather than of giving anything like a history of the known British species of Cetacea, it may be desirable to mention here a very remarkable form, which, although it has never been known to occur in the flesh on our shores, was first made known to science from an imperfect skeleton found in a semi-fossil condition beneath the peat in a Lincolnshire Fen. To this Dolphin, “come back, as it were, from the dead,” and which forms a connecting link between the genus Orca and the genera Grampus and Globicephalus (and which Owen had named Phocœna crassidens), Reinhardt gives the name of Pseudorca crassidens. On the 24th November, 1861, a large shoal of these dolphins made their appearance in the Bay of Kiel. The sailors succeeded in separating about thirty of them from the remainder, but all, with one exception, escaped. This was a female 16 feet long, which, after being exhibited at Kiel and other places, was bought for the Museum of the University of Kiel. In the summer of 1862, three other individuals, presumably from the same shoal, were thrown ashore on the north-western coast of Zealand. Of the general appearance of this creature the accompanying figure (24), copied, by kind permission, from Professor Flower’s translation of Reinhardt’s paper, published by the Ray Society, will give an idea; the figure is from a photograph of the Kiel specimen, and is not in the original paper. The length is from 16 to 19 feet; of the colour no account is given, but, judging from the woodcut of the Kiel specimen, it appears to be uniformly shiny black. The number of teeth differs in individuals, but in this one it was from 9 to 10 on either side of the lower jaw, and 8 to 10 in the upper. From the observations made by Reinhardt, he suggests a possibility that there may be “a difference in the sizes of the different sexes, and whether the females are not larger, but at the same time, perhaps, provided with a head comparatively smaller than that of the males.” It is very suggestive of how little we know of the inhabitants of the sea, that at least one vast shoal of a species known only from its sub-fossil remains should be roaming the seas only to be accidentally discovered when its members became entangled in shallows from which probably many never lived to extricate themselves.

RISSO’S GRAMPUS.

RISSO’S DOLPHIN (Grampus griseus, G. Cuvier; Grampus cuvieri, Gray, Ann. Nat. Hist., 1846) is a rare and little-known species, which has been met with four times on the south coast of England, and about eight times in France. In the ‘Transactions’ of the Zoological Society, for 1871, Professor Flower gives an account of an adult female which was taken in a mackerel-net, near the Eddystone Lighthouse, on 28th February, 1870, and which eventually was sent up to London. About a month later, a second specimen was received in London, the precise locality of which was not known, but it was probably from somewhere in the Channel. This was also a female, but a very young animal, and as the adult female first taken had recently given birth to a young one, it is quite possible that it may have belonged to her. On the 26th July, a male of the same species was captured alive at Sidlesham, near Chichester, and sent to the Brighton Aquarium, where it lived for a few hours only.

Risso’s Dolphin varies very considerably in its colouration. The Sidlesham specimen was bluish-black above, and dirty white beneath; in the adult female described by Professor Flower (from whose illustration our figure is, with his permission, copied), “the head and the whole of the body anterior to the dorsal fin was of a lightish grey, variegated with patches of both darker and whiter hue.... Behind the anterior edge of the dorsal fin the general colour of the surface, including the dorsal and caudal fins, was nearly black, though with a large light patch on the upper part of the side directly above the pudendal orifice. The middle of the belly as far back as the pudendal orifice, was greyish white.” The most remarkable characteristic, however, was the presence, scattered over the body, of irregular light streaks and spots; these markings extended from the head to within about two feet from the tail; and presented a most singular appearance. In the young one the upper parts and sides of the body were almost black, and the lower parts nearly white, the junction between the two colours being very abrupt and sharp. “On each side of the body were six vertical whitish stripes nearly symmetrically arranged, and almost equidistant, being about six inches apart. They did not extend quite to the middle line of the body above, and were lost below in the light colouring of the abdomen.” The length of the Sidlesham male was 8 feet, that of the adult female 10 ft. 6 in.; in the former there were present four teeth on each side the lower jaw, in the latter three only on each side, and in the immature specimen there were present seven teeth, four on the right, and three on the left side; the teeth are always placed in the front part of the mandible, and in every specimen examined there has been an entire absence of teeth in the upper jaw. In general appearance, Risso’s Dolphin, more particularly the dark-coloured specimens, is said very much to resemble the next species (Globicephalus melas). Of its habits and distribution nothing positive is known, but from its visiting France and England in the spring or summer, M. Fischer concludes that this species “is migratory, visiting the shores of Europe in the summer, and passing in winter either to the south towards the coast of Africa, or to the west towards the American Continent.”

THE PILOT WHALE.