The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



No. 34] 1900 [APRIL 



NOTES ON THE MARINE MAMMALS OF THE 

 NORTH-EAST OF SCOTLAND. 



By WILLIAM TAYLOR. 



GET ACE A. 



No whales of the genus Dahcna nor of the genus Megaptera 

 (except one at Wick in 1871) have been captured or stranded 

 in the north of Scotland for many years. 



Whales of the genus Balaznoptera are not so uncommon, 

 but I fear one species has sometimes been mistaken for 

 another. By far the commonest species stranded and 

 captured on our coasts, of late years, is Balcznoptera rostrata, 

 the Pike Whale, and not Balcenoptera niusculus, the Common 

 Rorqual. I know of no recent records of Balcenoptera 

 sibbaldii nor Balcenoptera borcalis, unless one or both of 

 these species have been mistaken at times for the Common 

 Rorqual. A maxillary bone sent from Burghead a few 

 years ago was identified by Sir William Turner as belong- 

 ing to Balcenoptera sibbaldii. 



BAL/ENOPTERA MUSCULUS (Common Rorqual). Several 



specimens of the Common Rorqual have been stranded near 



Nairn and Inverness within the past thirty years. There is 



a remarkable note in the Ward law Manuscript, written in 



34 B 



