Mr. Beale states that the female is smaller than the male, and that she breeds at all seasons, producing generally only one at a time, but sometimes two. Nothing certain appears to be known as to the There has been much discussion about the genera and species of this family. We shall however follow the British Museum Catalogue,' adding the more common synonyms of the species.
CaZodon macrocephalus, Northern Sperm-Whale. This is the Physeter rnacracephalus of Linnaeus ; the Sperm-Whale, the Spermaceti Whale, the Blunt-Headed Cachalot of English writers. It is the Physeter Trumps of Bonnaterre; the Catodou Trumpa of Gerard ; the Physeter gibbus of Schreber ; Cetus macrocephalus of Oken.
The colour of this animal is black, becoming whitish below.
The subjoined cut of the jaw is from F. Cuvier, who gives it from the skeleton in the Paris Museum, and is confined to the lower jaw only; from which it may be inferred, that in the French specimen there is no appearance of teeth in the upper jaw : in the lower there are 27 on each side=54.
To render the following description more intelligible we prefix a cut from Mr. Beale's work on the Sperm-Whale, which is by far the most accurate published figure extant of the Spermaceti Whale.
period of gestation, but F. Curler supposes it to be ton months. A lintel Cachalot, dissected by Mr. Bennett, was 14 feet long and 6 feet in eireumferenee, deep black, mottled with white spot& Its position in the womb was that of a bent bow. According to F. Cutler, the two brought forth by the Stranded Whale near D'Audierne, were 10 or 11 feet long ; and Captain Colnett states that the young Sperm-Whales which he saw in great numbers off the Galapagos Islands were not larger than a small Porpesse. Mr. Beale'a own observations coincided with those of Mr. Bennett.
For many other habits of this whale, such aa 'broaching,' or leaping clear out of the water and falling back again on its side, so that the broach may be seen In a clear day from the masthead at a distance of six miles ; 'going head out,' a mode of progression which enables it to attain 10 or 12 miles an hour, which Mr. Beale believes to be its greatest velocity; gob-tailing,' or lashing the water with its tail ; and the vivid descriptions of the dangers and hair-breadth escapes attending its capture, we must refer to Mr. Bertle's book, which every one who is anxious for information on this subject should read.
This animal is an inhabitant of the north ; it has however been found on the conga of America, Japan, New Guinea, and Timor. It
has been frequently stranded on the British Islands. Twelve males were caught at Walderwich on the Suffolk coast in 178S. There is a skeleton of an adult at Burton-Constable Castle, near Hull, in York shire. it has been taken also near Teignmouth, in Whitstable Bay, and in the Frith of Forth.
C. Candi, the Mexican Sperm-Whale, is an inhabitant of the North Pacific, the South Seas, and equatorial oceans, and often referred to the last species.
C. polycyphus, the South Sea Sperm-Whale, is found in the Southern Ocean, and is also spoken of as the Cachalot, or Sperm-Whale.
Koala is the generic name given by Dr. J. E. Gray to a form of whale with a shorter head, which has been taken at the Cape of Good Hope. It has been sometimes regarded as the young of the Sperm Whale.
K. brerieeps, the Short-Headed Whale of Gray, is the only species, and has been described from a single skull in the Paris Museum.
Physder is the generic term applied by Linnteus and many subse quent writers to the Sperm-Whale, but it was originally applied by Artedi to the Black Fish, to which Dr. J. E. Gray has restored it in the 'British Museum Catalogue.' P. Tunic, the Black Fish of Gray, is the Physeter microps and P. Turd° of Artedi, and probably the Delphinde globiceps or D. Gram pus of Cnvier. It is of a black colour. The teeth are from 11 to 22 on each side. It is an inhabitant of the North Sea. Two specimens, 62 feet in length, have been taken off the coasts of Scotland, and were described by Sibbald. Of one of the specimens Sibbald observes, "The size of the cranium may be estimated by the fact that four men were seen inside it at one time extracting the brain, which con tained several cells or alveoli, like those which bees keep their honey in, and in these were rounded masses of a white substance, which upon examination were proved to be sperm. Some of this substance was also found externally on the head, in some parts to the thickness of two feet." The family of DELPTIINTIVE, or Dolphins, are more numerous than those of the other Cetacea. They are distinguished from the last family by the smaller and more proportionate head ; and in those epodes which have lost their upper teeth at nn early age, by there being no regular pita in the gums of the upper jaw for the reception of the teeth of the lower ono ; and also by the hinder part of the skull not being deeply concave, and surrounded on the sides and behind by a high ridge.