72 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



Photographs of the animal, taken immediately after its 

 death, show it lying at full length on the sands, back upper- 

 most as one would expect. While being hauled ashore, 

 however, it gradually turned over, and when finally beached 

 lay more or less on its back, with the ventral surface fully 

 exposed to view. It was in this latter position when I 

 examined it, and took the photographs reproduced on the 

 two plates accompanying this paper. These show well the 

 long, slender form of the animal, and the longitudinal furrows 

 on the throat and chest characteristic of the Balcenopteridce. 



I first saw this whale the day after its capture, but the 

 state of the tide (high water) at the time of my visit pre- 

 vented me then making a close examination of it. That it 

 was a Rorqual of some kind was, however, quite evident, 

 and I felt pretty sure it was the species known as the 

 Common Rorqual or Razorback Bal&noptera physalus (L.). 1 

 Two days later, with the tide out, I was able to make the 

 desired examination, and satisfy myself that it was this 

 species ; the variegated baleen, the pointed form of the upper 

 jaw, the relatively short narrow flippers, and other external 

 characters all conforming to the descriptions. It was a 

 female, and, to judge by its length, 46^ feet as against 60 

 to 70 feet in the adult, immature. By the time the Crown 

 authorities took possession of the carcase, it had suffered 

 considerable mutilation at the hands of the visitors : the 

 dorsal fin had been hacked off, the right fluke of the tail 

 and the corresponding flipper materially shortened, pieces of 

 the skin cut out, and much of the baleen taken away. 



The following are some of the dimensions of the whale: 

 they are from measurements made by myself, and may be 

 taken as substantially correct : 



Entire length along middle of ventral surface . 46 ft. 6 in. 



(Along back to tip of snout about a foot les , 



Length of mouth (lower margin) about . . 9 ,, 6 ,, 



Point of snout to flipper . . . . 13 ,, 6 ., 



1 The nomenclature of the Whalebone Whales has been investigated by F. W. 

 True in a paper published in the " Proceedings of the United States National 

 Museum," vol. xxi. pp. 617-635 (1898), and one of the conclusions he arrives 

 at is that Balanoptera physalus (L. ) is the correct name for the species usually 

 denominated B. nntsculiis, the latter name being transferred by him to Sibbald's 

 Rorqual. 



