To the right of the entrance is placed a specimen of the bony framework of one of the most colossal of animals, the Cachalot, or Sperm-Whale (Physeter macrocephalus), [fig. 32], prepared from an old male cast ashore near Thurso, on the north coast of Scotland, in July, 1863, on the estate of Captain D. Macdonald, R.E., by whom it was presented to the Museum. Upon one side of this skeleton has been built the model of the external form of the animal. The Sperm-Whale is the principal source of supply of sperm-oil and spermaceti: the former being obtained by boiling the fat or blubber lying beneath the skin over the whole body. The latter, in a liquid state at the ordinary temperature of the living animal, is contained in cells which fill the immense cavity on the top of the skull. This Whale, which feeds chiefly on Cephalopods (Squids and Cuttle-fishes), but also on Fishes, is distributed throughout the warm and temperate regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and sometimes enters British waters.
In order to render this skeleton more instructive, the names have been attached to the principal bones, thus enabling the visitor to trace at a glance the extraordinary modification from the normal mammalian form the huge skull of this species has undergone.
Fig. 32.—An Old Male Sperm-Whale or Cachalot. Skeleton and outline of animal: b, nostril or blowhole; p, rudimentary pelvic bone. Length of specimen 54 feet.
Whalebone Whales.
Most of the largest Cetacea belong to the group called “Whalebone Whales,” in which a series of horny plates termed “whalebone” grow from the palate in place of teeth, and serve to strain the water taken into the mouth from the small marine animals on which these Whales subsist. A representative of this group is the skeleton of the Common Rorqual or Fin-Whale (Balænoptera musculus) in the south-west portion of the room. This Whale, which is sixty-eight feet long, was captured in 1882 in the Moray Firth, Scotland. The flukes of the tail and the back-fin were preserved with the skeleton and are placed above the wall-case behind; the small pelvic bones, and a rudimentary nodule representing the femur or thigh-bone, the only trace of the hind leg of this gigantic animal, are also shown. The external form is modelled in plaster. In front is a skeleton and half-model of the Black or North Atlantic Right-Whale (Balæna glacialis or biscayensis). Below this skeleton is placed a lower jaw of the Greenland Right-Whale (Balæna mysticetus), the species which formerly yielded most of the “whalebone” of commerce, and also a miniature wooden model of the entire animal, on the scale of one inch to the foot.
Remains of extinct Cetaceans—notably the solid bony beaks of the skulls of Beaked Whales (Ziphiidæ) from the Red Crag of the east coast of England—are placed in this gallery. A special table-case, near the Sperm-Whale, shows the curious ear-bones of various Cetaceans, both recent and fossil. These bones are perfectly sufficient for the identification of the kind of Whale from which they were taken. In a case on the opposite side of the gallery is displayed the horny wart, termed by sailors the “bonnet,” found on the nose of the Black Right-Whale.
First Floor.
The upper floors of the wings of the Museum consist merely of single galleries extending along the whole front of the building; for the galleries which run backwards on the ground floor form only a single storey.
