142 The Scottish Naturalist. 



ON THE CACHALOT OR SPERM WHALE (PHYSETER MACRO- 

 CEPHALUS) OF THE NORTH EAST OF SCOTLAND. 



BY ROBERT WALKER, F.G.S.E. 



IV T UMEROUS and conflicting as have been, and to some 

 ^ ^ extent still are, the opinions held by Naturalists as to 

 the number and proper arrangement of the different genera and 

 species of whales, none perhaps have caused more discussion, 

 and lead to greater diversity of opinions, in this department 

 of natural science, than the Sperm Whales described by Sir 

 R. Sibbald in his " Phalainologia Nova." The first of these is 

 his Balcena macrocephala, quce binas tantum pinnas laterales habet. 

 This was the Sperm Whale as understood by him, of which he 

 gives a notice in one of the chapters of his work. The next is 

 Balcena macrocephala, quce. tertiam i?i dorso pinnam sive spina??i 

 habet et denies hi maxilla infa-iore arcuatos falciformes. He 

 gives a somewhat long description of a male of this kind that 

 stranded at Limekilns, in the Forth, in February 1698. It was 

 52 feet long. The lower jaw contained 21 teeth in each side ; 

 the upper had no teeth, but had cartilage pits into which the 

 teeth of the lower jaw were received when the mouth was shut. 

 This specimen it will be observed, he says, had a dorsal fin. 

 The next is a Balcena macrocephala tripinnis, quce in mandibula 

 inferiore denies habet minus inflexos et in planum desinentes. This 

 specimen was thrown ashore in Orkney, in 1687, and had, he 

 was told, a dorsal fin resembling a mizen-mast. Although Sib- 

 bald describes both these whales, it does not appear that he saw 

 either of them himself, or indeed anything pertaining to them, 

 excepting some of their teeth, and a part of the eye of the Forth 

 animal, which were sent to him. He figures two of these teeth, 

 and they certainly look exceedingly like those of the common 

 Cachalot. The sharp tooth of the Limekilns animal representing 

 the young form, the Orkney tooth, the old and worn condition. 

 The Limekilns whale, when stranded, struggled so much in its 

 efforts to escape, that it partly buried itself in the sand, and 

 Sibbald was told that its true dimensions could not be taken. 

 A figure of it, however, was brought to him, as sketched on the 



