66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



PAPER READ. 



On the Occurrence of the Atlantic Right Whale, Balaena biscayensis 

 (Eschricht), on the East Coast of Scotland. By Mr. Thomas 

 Southwell, E.Z.S., corresponding member. 



In collecting material for a book on the Seals and Whales of 

 the British Seas which I have now in the press, a circumstance 

 has come to my knowledge which cannot fail to be of special interest 

 to Scottish naturalists, and which, in recognition of the service the 

 Glasgow Natural History Society is rendering to British naturalists 

 in publishing lists of the Fauna of the northern division of the 

 kingdom, I have much pleasure in communicating to its members. 



Until Professors Eschricht and Bernhardt of Copenhagen pub- 

 lished in 1861 their elaborate researches on the subject* and clearly 

 established the existence of two distinct northern species of Balaena, 

 the absence of Bight Whales from the temperate, waters of the 

 Atlantic, where in former times they had abounded, was attributed 

 to the relentless manner in which they had been pursued by the 

 Basque whale-fishers, together with the disturbed state of our seas 

 arising from increased traffic, more particularly of steam vessels. 

 These causes, it was believed, had either exterminated the Whales 

 in the temperate regions of the North Atlantic, or driven them 

 farther and farther towards the North till they had finally taken up 

 their quarters in the icy seas of the Polar regions. When therefore 

 a Right Whale appeared, or was supposed to have appeared, on our 

 shores, it was always recorded as a straggler from the North ; but 

 since Eschricht has shown that a Right Whale exists which is as 

 strictly confined to the waters of the temperate North Atlantic as 

 the Greenland Right Whale is to the polar seas, it has been generally 

 believed that any Balaena visiting our shores will be found to belong- 

 to the former species which Eschricht has named Balaena biscayensis. 



I will not trouble you with any description of this species, nor 

 will I attempt to define its range, nor to establish its identity with 

 the Black Whale (B. cisarctica, Cope) of the American coast, as 

 these subjects have already been fully discussed by Eschricht and 

 others, but will at once proceed to the object of my communication, 

 the occurrence of the Atlantic Right Whale on the Scottish coast. 



* "Om Nordhvalen," which appeared in the Transactions of the Royal 

 Danish Society of Sciences, a translation of which, edited by Professor Flower, 

 was published by the Ray Society in 1866. 



