1919. ScHARFF.— .4 New Irish Whale. 131 



known as Mesoplodoii Hectori. A few years later a whale 

 of the same species was cast ashore on one of the Aran 

 Islands ; and its skull was procured for the Galway Museum. 

 Prof. Anderson subsequently sent another note^ to this 

 Journal in which the teeth of this toothed whale were 

 described. 



Meanwhile, as already alluded to in the Irish Naturalist, 

 1918, p. 164, a Ziphioid whale which had been stranded 

 at Liscannor, County Clare, in I9i7> was secured for the 

 British Museum. It was referred by Dr. Harmer to Cuvier's 

 Whale {Ziphius cavirostris) . With the assistance of Prof. 

 Mangan who succeeded Prof. Anderson, Dr. Harmer has 

 now carefully re-examined the identification of these three 

 specimens. 



After due consideration he came to the conclusion 

 that both he and Prof. Anderson were wrong in their 

 identification. The bones in the neighbourhood of the 

 anterior nares differ widely in Ziphius and Mesoplodon 

 and all the three skulls referred to had the characters of 

 the latter genus. The question thus remained to be decided 

 whether these whales belonged to Mesoplodon Hectori or 

 to Mesoplodon minis, the species recently discovered by 

 Prof. True on the coast of Carolina. The two species 

 seem to be very closely allied, but Dr. Harmer now believes 

 all the three Irish specimens to be identical with what he 

 calls True's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon minis). He 

 promises to give us a more detailed account of them later 

 on. 



National Museum, Dublin. 



^ R. F. Anderson, " A Note on a Beaked Whale" {Mesoplodon Hectori 

 Gray), Irish Naturalist, 1901, p. 117. 



- " The Teeth in Mesoplodon Hectori," Gray. Irish Naturalist, 1904, 

 p. 126. 



