The Annals 



of 



Scottish Natural History 



No. 17] 1896 [JANUARY 



UNCOMMON CETACEANS IN SCOTTISH SEAS. 



By JAMES SIMPSON, 

 Anatomical Museum, University of Edinburgh, 



THE COMMON DOLPHIN (Delphinus delphis) IN SHETLAND. 



ON the 5th of February 1895 I received a telegram stating 

 that a specimen of this uncommon species had been 

 captured in Urafirth Voe, and, instructed by Sir William 

 Turner, secured it for the Anatomical Museum of the 

 University of Edinburgh. It proved to be a male, was 5 feet 

 8^ inches in length, and its skeleton now forms part of the 

 Cetacean collection in the University Museum. 



Regarding its capture, Mr. Thomas Anderson, Hillswick, 

 writes : " A little boy eleven years old saw it splashing in the 

 shallow water at the head of Urafirth Voe. He ran clown 

 with his father's stick and hooked the crook into the blow- 

 hole, and so hauled it as far as he could. He says he then 

 felled it with a stone, and got his sister to help him up with 

 it, as all the men were at sea." 



[This species does not appear to have hitherto been 

 recorded for the British coasts north of the Firth of Forth on 

 17 B 



