l3o The Irish Naturalist. Nov.-Dec, 



A NEW IRISH WHALE. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, B.SC, M.R.I. A. 



A REPORT has recently been issued by Dr. S. F. Harmer 

 on the whales and dolphins stranded on the British coasts 

 during the year 1918.^ In the Irish Naturalist of October- 

 November, 1918, p. 164, reference was made to a previous 

 report on the same subject. We are thus slowly acquiring 

 a knowledge of the species of whales frequenting our shores, 

 and Dr. Harmer is to be congratulated on the success of 

 his efforts to enlist the services of the receivers of wrecks 

 and coastguard officials in elucidating this important 

 natural history problem. 



The present report mentions the following species as 

 having been obtained from Irish localities : — 



Dolphin [Delphinus delphis) Barley Cove, Co. Cork, 

 February 5th, 7 ft. 6 in. ; Bunowen, Co. Galway, 

 August 13th, 6 ft. II in. ; Cloghmore Point, Co. 

 Galway, September 22nd, 7 ft. ; Schull, Co. Cork, 

 October 30th, 7 ft. 

 Killer or Grampus (Orcinus orca), Castlewray, Co. 



Donegal, March 3rd, 11 ft. 

 Bottle-nosed Dolphin {Ttir stops truncatus), Bally- 



heigue, Co. Kerry, August 7th, 10 ft. 4 in. 

 Bottle-no -ED Whale {Hyperoodon rostratiis), Bally- 



vaughan, Co. Clare, September 4th, 18 ft. 4 in. 



Rorqual (Balaenoptera physalus), Culdaff, Co. Donegal, 



October 19th, 49 ft. 



The most interesting item in the report is the description 



of True's Beaked Whale (Mesoplodon mirus) a species 



not hitherto known to occur in Irish waters. The readers 



of this journal may remember that the late Prof. Anderson 



of Galway announced in 1901 that there was in University 



College Museum, Galway, a skeleton of a whale, presumably 



Irish, which he identified with a New Zealand species 



^ S. F. Harmer, " Report on the Cetacea stranded on the British 

 Coasts during 191 8," London, 1919, British Museum. 



