The Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae: An Account of the Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae in the Collection of the United States Museum...True, Frederick W. (Frederick William)
Science
The Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae: An Account of the Beaked Whales of the Family Ziphiidae in the Collection of the United States Museum...
True, Frederick W. (Frederick William)
Beaked whales
The series of photographs (Cat. No. 142579) of an individual obtained in
Kiska Harbor, Alaska, is very interesting as affording comparison of what
is apparently a specimen of _grebnitzkii_ with the Atlantic form
represented in the photograph of the Newport, Rhode Island, specimen. As
no part of the Kiska specimen was preserved, it is not possible, of
course, to identify it positively with _grebnitzkii_ or even with the
genus _Ziphius_. No one who compares the photographs reproduced in Pl.
41, figs. 3 and 4, can, I think, fail to be convinced that both represent
animals of the same genus and that the Pacific species (whether
_grebnitzkii_ or not) bears the strongest possible resemblance to the
Atlantic one.
Doctor Egbert published the following note on the Kiska specimen in 1905:
Early in September a monster dolphin grounded on the beach in Kiska
Harbor and was killed. Specific identification has not yet been made.
The general color was bluish-gray; length, 18½ feet; estimated weight,
3,600 pounds; sex, male. Body was quite regular in shape and rather
rotund, the greatest circumference being about midway between dorsal
fin and tip of the rather short snout. This dolphin was hauled
alongside the ship, stripped of its blubber, and the oil extracted.
Some of the flesh was eaten. The oil obtained was of excellent quality.
It was particularly desired for use on the wire of the deep-sea
sounding machine used aboard the [U. S. Coast Survey steamer]
_Patterson_.[47]
The size was about the same as that of the Newport specimen. Although
Doctor Egbert gives the color merely as “bluish gray,” the photographs
indicate that the belly was white, or whitish, and that there were oval
white spots on the sides. As a whole, therefore, the coloration was
similar to that of the New Zealand specimens of _cavirostris_ obtained at
Port Cooper and Lyttleton Harbor.
When compared with the photograph of the Newport specimen (Pl. 41, fig.
4) it will be seen that the Kiska photograph represents an animal
practically identical in general form, as well as in the general shape of
the head, the length and form of the snout, the size and general shape of
the pectoral fins. In the photograph of the Newport specimen the flukes
are not well seen, but in the Kiska photograph the posterior median
convexity peculiar to the ziphioids is clearly represented. The dorsal
fin of the Newport specimen appears to be turned somewhat to one side and
the tip crumpled, which makes it appear lower and somewhat longer and
less pointed than that of the Kiska specimen. This may, of course, be a
real difference, though such is probably not the case.
Considering the foregoing data relative to _grebnitzkii_ as a whole,
there is not in my opinion sufficient warrant at present for considering
this form as a species distinct from _cavirostris_, and it should be
added that no distinguishing characters were given in the original
description.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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