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 extends to the eastern North Pacific, one genus
(_Ziphius_) having been observed at Kiska Harbor, Alaska, another
(_Mesoplodon_) at Yaquina Bay, Oregon, and the third (_Berardius_) at St.
George Island, Pribilof Group, Alaska, and near Cape Mendocino,
California.
On the east and west coasts of the United States the only occurrences of
beaked whales known to me are as follows: