310 Mr. W. Thompson's Additions to the Fauna of Ireland, 



XXXIII. — Additions to the Fauna of Ireland, including species new 

 to that of Britain ; — with Notes on rare species. By William 

 Thompson, Esq., Pres. Nat. Hist, and Philos. Society of Bel- 

 fast. 



Mammalia. 



High-finned Cachalot, Physeter tursio, Linn. 

 I am happy to be enabled to join my friend Professor Bell (see 

 British Mammalia, p. 512) in maintaining the existence of this spe- 

 cies, which Cuvier, from the unsatisfactory nature of the data re- 

 specting it, believed to be fictitious : — even yet no proper description 

 or figure has been published. 



Professor Bell comes to his conclusion on information to which 

 Cuvier had not access, and which was communicated to him by 

 Mr. Barclay of Zetland. The occurrence of the species on the coast 

 of Ireland was made known to me by Capt. Thomas Walker, who 

 replied as follows to a letter requesting the fullest information on 

 the subject : — " Kilmore, Bridgetown, Wexford, July 28, 1846 : — 

 As to the -High-finned Cachalots, I saw them myself about seven 

 years ago, and only know them to have been so from the descriptions 

 in works of natural history which I consulted to find out what they 

 w r ere. There were either five or seven of them — I now forget which 

 number — but I think the latter, and two of them were much larger 

 than the rest, apparently about twenty-five feet long, from comparing 

 them with the length of the boat in which I was. When first I saw 

 one, I thought it was a cot [small flat-bottomed boat] at anchor with 

 her tarred sail made up to the mast ; more then rose, and they crossed 

 in a long file the bows of my boat so close, that I put about the boat 

 (though of seven tons burthen) fearing they would upset her. When 

 I put about, they were not more than three or four yards from me ; 

 the back fin appeared about ten or twelve feet high, and had either 

 before or behind it (I cannot now recollect which) a round white 



Appearance of the High-finned Cachalot as seen by Capt. Walker. 



spot on the back ; all the rest of the body that showed was black 

 like a porpoise. I did not see the head or tail, nor more than a por- 

 tion of the back : they went steadily, not rolling like a porpoise." 



There certainly is no proof here that the species noticed was a 

 Physeter, but, that it was what has been called the High-finned 



