4!?8 Mr. J. Couch on the species of Whales 



perhaps the same kind of whale having come on shore near 

 Padstow about the end of the last century ; and at the beginning 

 of the same a very large individual came on shore near Looe. 

 About the year 1810, another, much mutilated, was thrown on 

 shore at Polperro ; but, as the head was defective, after close 

 examination, I was unable to determine the species. 



Pike-headed Whale. — B. rostrata of Gray, Hunter; Bell's 

 Brit. Quad. p. 521. 



There is little doubt that this is the B. Boops of some natu- 

 ralists, and perhaps of F. Cavier, pi. 20; but if so, he has con- 

 founded two species together under this name, — this name 

 having been assigned to a single specimen by an observer who 

 had never seen another. 



A specimen was caught in a mackerel drift-net, and brought 

 into Polperro, in May 1850. By the obliging assistance of the 

 fisherman, I had an opportunity of making a sketch of this spe- 

 cimen before it was quite dead, and while yet afloat, the body 

 being sustained on its side with ropes for that purpose. All the 

 published figures I have seen are imperfect in form or expression. 

 This individual is described in the ' Reports of the Natural His- 

 tory Society of Penzance.' The blubber was 2 inches in thick- 

 ness. Another specimen was taken at Plymouth a few years 

 before, and it appears to be not uncommon on our coasts. 



In the museum of the Natural History Society of Penzance 

 there is a ramus of the jaw-bone of some species of Whale, which 

 is marked as belonging to the Hyperoodon ; but, for anatomical 

 reasons, it cannot be assigned to a species classed by naturalists 

 under that name. It resembles much more closely a branch of 

 the jaw of B. rostrata ; and it is here noticed more particularly, 

 because of the information supplied by Mr. Chirgwin, who pre- 

 sented it to the museum, — that the animal, which was 22 feet 

 long, produced 90 gallons of oil. Another whale, which was 

 18 feet in length, and which the same gentleman called the 

 Lesser Rorqual, but which I suppose to be the same species, 

 affbrded also 90 gallons. 



Genus Megaptera. 



M, longhnanay Gray (Catalogue of Brit. Mus. p. 26), who, quoting 

 Professor Eschricht, says, " this is the most common whale in 

 the Greenland seas ;" but it is not distinguished by Scoresby, 

 Cuvier, or Bell. I have supposed it to be the species referred 

 to in the information given me by an observing and intelligent 

 fisherman. 



In the middle of July 1835, a whale came about his boat, and 



