oJG Mr. W. Thompson on the Bottle-nosed Whale, 



of the Hyperoodon in Ireland, is contained in the Dublin Phi- 

 losophical Journal for March 1825, where Dr. Jacob (now Pro- 

 fessor of Anatomy and Physiology in the Royal College of Sur- 

 geons in Ireland) very fully and ably describes a specimen 

 dissected by him ; and at the same time, after a due examina- 

 tion of its anatomy, treats of the place the genus should oc- 

 cupy among the Cetacea*. The individual which formed the 

 subject of the essay "was stranded at Killiney, a few miles 

 from Dublin, in the month of September [1824?]." Its per- 

 fect skeleton is preserved in the museum of the College of 

 Surgeons in Dublin. In Mr. Templeton's Catalogue of Irish 

 Vertebrate Animals f, the Hyperoodon is mentioned as " occa- 

 sionally" met with. 



From Dr. Jacob I learned in November last, that within 

 twenty- five years he has known four bottle-nosed whales to 

 be stranded within a short distance of Dublin — of these, all, 

 except the one particularly described by him, were taken at 

 Howth, near the entrance of the bay : on one occasion, two of 

 them occurred at the same time. 



Early in the month of August 1836, two Hyperoodons were 

 stranded at Dunany Point, near Dundalk. A friend who saw 

 the specimens when quite recent, described them to me as 

 bottle-nosed whales, and on my sending to him for the pur- 

 pose of identification outlines of the individuals figured by 

 Dale and Hunter, he stated that the form of Dale's figure repre- 

 sented them well. The larger of these animals was 1 7 feet in 

 length and 14| in girth; the other was somewhat smaller. 

 Having been stranded on the property of his relative, Lady 

 Bellingham, their heads were fortunately reserved for my 

 friend Dr. Bellingham of Dublin. I had lately an opportunity 

 of examining both of these specimens, one of which is in the 

 Museum of the School of Anatomy, Peter-street ; the other 

 in that of the Royal Dublin Society. In the latter collection is 

 the head of a second Hyperoodon, which in all probability was 



* The name of Hyperoodon is objected to by Dr. Jacob as expressing what 

 the animal does not possess — teeth in the palate, this part having been as 

 smooth as the rest of the mouth in the specimen he dissected. Ceto-diodcn 

 was proposed by Dr. Jacob as a generic name, and Hunteri was applied by 

 him to the species. This elaborate memoir though published in 1825 is un- 

 noticed in any of the above-cited works. 



f Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i. New Series. 



