148 The Scottish Naturalist. 



so, are the teeth described and figured by Sibbald himself. 

 Flower, 1 in an able paper on the skeleton of a Sperm whale from 

 Tasmania, and after comparing the bones of this animal with 

 all those of the Cachalot that had stranded on the shores of this 

 country, within his reach, states that he is quite unable, from 

 the material at present available, to point out any constant 

 difference of specific value between the Cachalot inhabiting the 

 Australian seas and that occasionally visiting our northern 

 coasts. And he concludes by saying, that if the Linnean genus 

 Physeter is to be kept in abeyance until the rediscovery of Sib- 

 bald's " Baltzna maerocephala tripi?i7ia" it is to be feared that it 

 may ultimately disappear altogether from zoological literature. 

 Beal 2 also states, from his observations of the animals them- 

 selves, alive and dead, that " The large full-grown male, appear- 

 ed the same in every part, from New Guinea to Japan, from 

 Japan to the coast of Peru, from Peru to our own island, while 

 their females coincided in every particular." Sibbald' s Pedicu- 

 lus ceti Boccone (Plate II., fig. 4.) is evidently a specimen of 

 Coronula balaznaris. This parasite was sent to Sibbald by Mr. 

 Foster, a Regent in the university ot St. Andrews, and was taken 

 off the side of a whale stranded there. What whale this may 

 have been is somewhat difficult to determine. In a case of 

 this kind we can only attempt to indicate which appears on the 

 whole the most likely species.' 



There are some two or three genera of Cirripedcs — or Bar.- 

 nacles, as they are commonly called — that are in the habit of 

 attaching themselves to the skin of the larger whales. Of the 

 Balanidoz so met with. Coronula and Tubicinella are the most 

 common. Besides these, some of the Lepadidoe, or peduncu- 

 lated kinds, are also found adherent to whales. And sometimes 

 the whale is infested with both the sessile and pedunculated 

 species at the same time. Ellis 3 figures a Coronula, with an 

 example of Conchodcrma aurita attached to it, that was taken 

 off a whale stranded in Norway. These commensal parasites, 

 of which Van Beneden 4 takes Coronula as a type of his Oika- 

 silai, are not found on all the large species of whales. It seems 

 probable that those that are so troubled with them may have 



1 Zool. Soc, i368. 2 Sperm Whale. 3 Phil. Trans. 1758. 

 4 Brit. Association, 1870. 



