A RARE WHALE.

Colonist, Volume LIV, Issue 13378, 29 March 1912, Page 6

A RARE WHALE.

The other day a whale was stranded at Allandale, near Lyttelton. Mr. E. R. Waite, F.L.S., tho Curator of the Christchurch museum, secured it for that institution. Mr AVaito states: —

"Tho animal is one of the so-called beaked whales, and is known as the strap-toothed whale, on account of the two peculiar teeth which grow from the low-er jaw and curve over tho upper jaw, so that the mouth is almost prevented from opening. At one time this peculiarity was regarded as an abnormality, but later it was discovered that it is a feature of the species, and is comparable to the . condition in the fossil sabre-toothed tiger. "The whale is a full-grown female, its length being 18ft 3in, its girth is eleven foot, and its weight 1 ton 16 cwt. The eye is very small, being only 1J inches in length, and tho width of the tail flukes is 4ft lOin. The colouration is peculiar, tho ivory or grey and black being strangely disposed, and the colours sharply defined.

"An attempt will be made to obtain a cast of the animal, so that a correct representation of its outward form and co.our may bo preserved, a most desirable tiling seeing that no such object is to be- found in any museum in Australasia, nor so far as I am aware, elsewhere."