ZOOLOGICAL NOTES 251 



Lesser Rorqual in the Moray Firth. In the " Scotsman " of 

 7th August a "White Whale," 27 feet in length, is reported to have 

 been cast ashore at Cullen two days previously. Shortly afterwards 

 the report spread that the creature was not a White, but a Sperm 

 Whale, and I myself noticed that report in at least one newspaper 

 published in the North. As both of these whales are of excessively 

 rare occurrence round the British coasts, I resolved to take advantage 

 of a short visit which I was about to pay to the Moray Firth region, 

 in going to see this whale with the object of verifying the genus and 

 species to which it belonged. Accordingly, on Monday, 24th August, I 

 visited Cullen accompanied by my friend Mr. W. Taylor of Lhanbryde, 

 and we at once found the remains to be those of the Lesser Rorqual, 

 Balcznoptera rostrata (Fabricius). Not much remained of the body 

 of the whale, the oil having been extracted from the blubber, and 

 the bones having been nearly all divested of the flesh, being in fact 

 in the process of preparation by the man who had purchased the 

 carcase. I saw nothing of the viscera or of the sexual organs, but 

 it is reported to have been a male. According to reports, it was 

 never seen alive, and was in all probability dead for several weeks 

 before being thrown ashore. This will account for its " white " 

 colour, and for the loss of the baleen, of which I saw not a trace. 



The length of the entire specimen is said to have been 2 7 feet. 

 The measurements of the skull taken by Mr. Taylor and myself are 

 as follows : 



Entire length of skull . . .5 feet 3 inches. 



Greatest breadth behind orbits . . 3 ,, o ,, 



Breadth across base of rostrum . . i ,, 10 ,, 



Length of rostrum, base to tip . 3 ,, 3 ,, 



This species has no place in Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Buckley's 

 recently published " Fauna of Moray," and is presumably an addi- 

 tion to the fauna of that district. R. H. TRAQUAIR, Museum of 

 Science and Art, Edinburgh. 



The Blackcap in East Renfrewshire, and the Scaup Duck 

 there in Summer. Two additions to our list of East Renfrewshire 

 birds have been made in the present summer. First the Blackcap 

 (Sylvia atricapilla\ of which two or three pairs have been found 

 in the Rouken Glen near Thornliebank, and second the Scaup 

 (Fulignla marila) the latter, considering the time of its occurrence, 

 being probably of more than local interest. Scaups are so strictly 

 maritime in their habits during the usual period of their sojourn in 

 this country, that even in this district, which presents many attrac- 

 tions to their congeners, they have been hitherto practically un- 

 known, as the record by Mr. R. H. Read of one shot near Glasgow 

 at the beginning of November 1890 ("Scot. Nat.," N.S., vol. v. p. 

 39) stands alone so far as we know. This summer, however, from 

 the end of June until the middle of August, when this is written, 



