The Scottish Naturalist. 107 



Another example of this whale was cast ashore near Kinkell, 

 about three miles east of St. Andrews, on the 8th January, 

 1848. As no description of this specimen has been published, 

 I will endeavour, as far as I can, to supply the deficiency, 

 chiefly from my own examination of the animal, aided on one 

 or two points by the sizes of some of the parts as taken by the 

 late Dr. Reid, who exhibited specimens illustrative of some of 

 the structures of this animal, and made some remarks upon the 

 Cetacea, to the Literary and Philosophical Society of St. An- 

 drews. It is much to be regretted that Dr. Reid's notes on this 

 whale, if he made any, appear to be lost. The animal, when 



1 saw it first, was lying amongst the rocks, with its head sea- 

 ward, and partly on the right side. It was a female, and was 

 observed floating about dead some time before stranding. All 

 the back, and pretty well down each side, was of a greyish-black 

 colour, and the lower hide of a white or dirty ish-white colour. 

 There was a considerable number of longitudinal folds or ridges 

 of the skin on the under anterior part of the body ; those in 

 the middle commenced almost at the symphysis of the lower 

 jaw, and terminated half-way to the tail; those on the sides did 

 not extend quite so far. The extreme length of the animal was 

 54 feet; the greatest circumference, in front of pectoral fin, 

 29 feet 10 inches, or thereby; length of the mouth, 10 feet 

 3 inches; height of dorsal fin, 14 inches; the tail, 10 feet 

 8 inches broad ; from point of snout to pectoral fin, 6 feet 



2 inches ; pectoral fins, 6 feet 2 inches long ; the lower jaw 

 projected about 15 inches beyond the upper. The baleen 

 was of a lightish slate-colour ; the longest plates were situated 

 behind the middle of the mouth, and measured 1 foot 10 inches 

 in length. From this point they gradually diminished in length 

 to both extremities ; those near the snout appeared to me to be 

 the shortest. I could count 14 ribs only on each side, and 59 

 vertebrae in all ; but as the carcass was a good deal broken up, 

 and not very approachable otherwise before this was possible, the 

 numbers may not be quite correct. Indeed, authors differ some- 

 what in opinion as to the number of vertebrae in this species ; 

 sometimes they are given as high as 63. Professor Reinhardt, 

 however, states that there are regularly only 61 in this whale. I 

 do not know exactly in which of Professor Flower's stages, as to 

 age, this animal should be placed ; it was not, at any rate, past 



