AN ACCOUNT OF THE BEAKED WHALES OF THE FAMILY ZIPHIIDÆ IN THE COLLECTION OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, WITH REMARKS ON SOME SPECIMENS IN OTHER AMERICAN MUSEUMS

BY
FREDERICK W. TRUE
Head Curator, Department of Biology, U. S. National Museum

WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1910

BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM
Issued September 28, 1910.

ADVERTISEMENT.

The scientific publications of the United States National Museum consist of two series, the Proceedings and the Bulletins.

The Proceedings, the first volume of which was issued in 1878, are intended primarily as a medium for the publication of original, and usually brief, papers based on the collections of the National Museum, presenting newly-acquired facts in zoology, geology, and anthropology, including descriptions of new forms of animals, and revisions of limited groups. One or two volumes are issued annually and distributed to libraries and scientific organizations. A limited number of copies of each paper, in pamphlet form, is distributed to specialists and others interested in the different subjects as soon as printed. The date of publication is printed on each paper, and these dates are also recorded in the tables of contents of the volume.

The Bulletins, the first of which was issued in 1875, consist of a series of separate publications comprising chiefly monographs of large zoological groups and other general systematic treatises (occasionally in several volumes), faunal works, reports of expeditions, and catalogues of type-specimens, special collections, etc. The majority of the volumes are octavos, but a quarto size has been adopted in a few instances in which large plates were regarded as indispensable.

Since 1902 a series of octavo volumes containing papers relating to the botanical collections of the Museum, and known as the Contributions from the National Herbarium, has been published as bulletins.

The present work forms No. 73 of the Bulletin series.

Richard Rathbun,
Assistant Secretary, Smithsonian Institution,
In charge of the United States National Museum.

Washington, D. C., June 1, 1910.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page.

Introduction 1

Descriptions of skulls and skeletons of Ziphioid whales 3

Genus Mesoplodon 3

Mesoplodon bidens 4

densirostris 9

europæus 11

stejnegeri 24

Genus Ziphius 30

Ziphius cavirostris 30

Genus Berardius 60

Berardius bairdii 60

Genus Hyperoödon 76

Hyperoödon ampullatus 76

List of species of existing Ziphioid whales 76

Index 79

Explanation of plates 83

AN ACCOUNT OF THE BEAKED WHALES OF THE FAMILY ZIPHIIDÆ IN THE COLLECTION OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM, WITH REMARKS ON SOME SPECIMENS IN OTHER AMERICAN MUSEUMS.

By Frederick W. True,
Head Curator, Department of Biology, U. S. National Museum.

INTRODUCTION.

The beaked whales belonging to the family Ziphiidæ are, with the exception of the bottle-nosed whales of the genus Hyperoödon, among the rarest of cetaceans. Of the three genera Mesoplodon, Ziphius, and Berardius, so far as I have been able to ascertain from published records, specimens representing about one hundred individuals are known, and somewhat more than one-half of these belong to the first-named genus. Berardius is the rarest genus, only about fourteen specimens having been collected thus far. The U. S. National Museum contains specimens representing some twenty-five individuals of the three genera, or about one-fourth of the material at present available. Among these are six specimens of the genus Berardius, or nearly half of all that have been recorded thus far.

The most important addition to the knowledge of these whales made during the last quarter century was the discovery of representatives of the three genera Mesoplodon, Ziphius, and Berardius, at Bering Island, in the North Pacific, by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger, whereby the known range of the family was very greatly extended. Two of the forms were described by Doctor Stejneger in 1883, and the third by myself from a skull which he collected. About one-half of the material which the Museum possesses consists of that collected by Doctor Stejneger in Bering Island and that from the same locality presented by Mr. Nicholas Grebnitzki, Russian governor of the Commander Islands.

About six years ago the National Museum received information and specimens from correspondents showing that the range of the three genera found at Bering Island