ON THE OCCURRENCE OF RISSO'S GRAMPUS 197 



ON THE OCCURRENCE OF RISSO'S GRAMPUS 

 (GRAMPUS GRISEUS, CUV.) ON THE EAST 

 COAST OF SCOTLAND. 



By R. H. TRAQUAIR, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



ON the 22nd August last Mr. C. Muirhead presented to the 

 Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, the skull of a small 

 whale which had been taken up by the trawl some miles to 

 the east of the Isle of May. On examining it and compar- 

 ing it with other Cetacean crania in the Museum collection, 

 I found that it belonged to the rare British species Grampus 

 griseus, commonly known as Risso's Grampus or Dolphin. 



So far as Scotland is concerned, the record of its occur- 

 rence is small. Six examples were captured at Hillswick, 

 Shetland, in 1889, of which the crania of four and the 

 entire skeletons of two individuals were secured by Sir 

 William Turner for the Anatomical Museum of the 

 University. 1 Again, in 1893, two specimens were recorded 

 by Mr. Service from the Solway Firth, 2 and the skeleton of 

 one of these was procured by that gentleman for the 

 Museum of Science and Art, in which it is now exhibited. 3 

 I have heard of no other instances of its having been found 

 on or off the Scottish coasts, and this seems also to be the 

 first record of its occurrence along the eastern shores of 

 Great Britain. 



The entire length of the skull is eighteen inches, its 

 greatest breadth being twelve and three-quarters ; the lower 

 jaw and ear bones are, of course, wanting. The cervical 

 vertebrae, anchylosed as usual into one piece, were immovably 

 fixed to the occiput, and on forcibly separating them an 

 abnormal condition of the condylar region was disclosed, 

 which must have quite prevented the animal, when alive, 

 from moving its head on the vertebral column. More 

 than that, the cervical vertebras, when readjusted, are seen 

 to have got a twist to the right side, so that the left 



1 " Proc. Roy. Phys. Soc. Edin.," 1891 (1892), vol. xi. pp. 192-197. 

 2 "Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist.," 1893, p. i. 

 3 R. H. Traquair, ib. 1894, p. i. 



