WHALES STRANDED ON SCOTTISH COASTS IN 1916 roi 



WHALES STRANDED ON SCOTTISH COASTS 



IN 1916. 



In the Report on Cetacea Stranded on the British Coasts 

 during 1916, by S. F. Harmer, Sc.D., F.R.S., six are reported 

 cast up on the shores of Scotland, of which it seems fitting 

 that full record should be made in this magazine. By far 

 the most interesting of these was the Killer or Grampus 

 {Orcinus orca) procured at Colvend, Kirkcudbright, on 23rd 

 May, of which Dr Harmer says : " The individual reported 

 from the Solway Firth on 23rd May is the first recorded in 

 these Reports, and is of special interest in more than one 

 respect. It was unfortunately incomplete, the tail being 

 missing, and, although its full length cannot thus be stated, 

 it can hardly have been less than 30 ft. . . . The length of 

 the lower jaw (from the condyle to the anterior tip) is 

 3 ft. 2 in., and the specimen thus appears to have been 

 one of the largest on record. 



" In addition to the lower jaw, which had twelve teeth on 

 each side, the dorsal fin, both pectoral fins, several bones, 

 and two photographs of the entire animal were received. 

 One of the photographs shows that the specimen was a 

 male. The fins were of enormous size, the dorsal fin being 

 5 ft. 6 in. long, and the pectoral fins being 6 ft. 8 in. long 

 and 3 ft. 7 in. in breadth, thus largely exceeding in absolute 

 size the flippers of an adult male Sperm Whale. I am 

 indebted to Dr Knud Andersen for having called my atten- 

 tion to the observations of Liitken (' Kritiske Studier over 

 nogle Tandhvaler,' vid. Selsk. Skr., 4 Bd., No. VI., p. 367) 

 on the very remarkable alterations which occur in the fins 

 of the male Killer during growth to its full size. According 

 to these observations, the pectoral fins of young males, and 

 of females of all ages, are relatively small and weak, their 

 length being about one-ninth of the entire animal. In the 

 males, however, ' all the fins, the caudal and dorsal fins as 

 well as the flippers, grow relatively larger with age,' and 

 ' the difference between the small and weak pectoral fins 



