THE ZOOLOGIST
THIRD SERIES.
Vol. II.] JANUARY, 1878. [No. 13. |
ON THE DISTINGUISHING CHARACTERS OF THE
BRITISH CETACEA.
By the Editor.
It frequently happens that large Cetaceans are unexpectedly cast up on some part or other of our coast, run aground, or are killed within sight of land and towed ashore. Few persons being acquainted with these creatures for want of opportunity to study and compare their various forms, or for want of access to descriptions, the species often remains undetermined until the carcase is cut up, and the various portions of it become dispersed. In this way many a good opportunity of adding to our knowledge of these marine Mammalia is unfortunately lost.
Under these circumstances it has occurred to me that a list of the British Cetacea, with a brief enumeration of the distinguishing characters of each, may be of service in assisting in the first instance towards the identification of a species, whose history and perhaps, habits, if known, may then be ascertained from other sources. Once the species is made out, it is not difficult, as a rule, to learn more about it. The difficulty at starting is to name it.
At the present day it is perhaps scarcely necessary to observe that Whales and Dolphins, notwithstanding their external appearance and oceanic life, are not fishes, but marine mammals, which bring forth their young alive, and nourish them in precisely the same way as do the terrestrial mammals.
