18 



one caj)tured near Queensferry in February 1834, and prepared by 

 Dr. Robert Knox. Prof. Turner tells me that in the same Museum 

 is the skull and baleen of a specimen stranded at Burntisland in 

 1870, the skull and baleen of one taken at Dunbar in 1871, and 

 some baleen-plates of one caught in the herring nets off Anstruther 

 in 1872. Another specimen was caught in the Firth of Forth in 

 1858. The Lesser Rorqual has also been recorded from Shetland, 

 and the skull of one which was cast ashore on Islay in 18G6 is now 

 in the Museum of the University of Cambridge. In the Museum 

 of Anderson's College, Glasgow, there is a sub-fossil skull of a small 

 Whale, which was found in brick-clay near Stirling, which is pro- 

 bably referable to this species. 



[Balaenoptera laticeps (Gray). — Rudolphi's Rorqual has been 

 supposed to visit our shores, the Islay Rorqual mentioned above 

 having been referred to this rare species by MM. Gervais and 

 Van Beneden (Osteogr. des Cetaces, i., p. 200). Mr. J. W. Clark, 

 however, informs me that a more careful examination of the skull 

 at Cambridge shows that it belonged to the last species.] 



Family: PHYSETERIDAE. 



26. Physeter macrocephalus, Linnaeus. 



Sperm-Whale, or Cachalot. 



Stray individuals, usually old bulls, occasionally wander from 

 the semi-tropical seas, and Prof. Turner has collected evidence of 

 at least eight authentic occurrences on the coasts of Scotland. A 

 tooth was found by Mr. G. Petrie in a structure at Hoxay, 

 Orkney, which probably dates from the 9th or 10th century 

 (Turner, P. A\ S. Edin,, 1871-2, p. 638). A male, 52 feet long, 

 came ashore at Limekilns, on the Forth, in February 1689, as 

 recorded by Sir Robert Sibbald, in his " Phalainologia Nova," 

 and another, about the same size, at Cramond in 1701 (Turner, op. 

 cit., 1870-1, ]). 367). One of 57 feet in length was taken at 

 Moniheth in February 1703 (op. cit., p. 368), and one of 63 feet 

 on the west coast of Ross-shire in 1756 (Hamilton, Nat. Libr., 

 xvi., p. 179). A second example ran ashore at Cramond in 

 December 1769. It was also a male, measuring 54 feet, and 

 was described by Robertson in the Philosophical Transactions of 

 1770. Low mentions two taken in Hoy Sound about 1800, and 

 says that the species " is often drove ashore about the Orkneys " 

 (Fauii.O?'c., p. 161). One, said to have been about 60 feet long, was 



