SEALS, WHALES, AND DOLPHINS OF THE CLYDE SEA AREA. 195 



fins may have the appearance of belonging to one animal, and 

 may cause bewilderment. Porpoises sometimes approach very 

 close to the shore, apparently in the most confident manner. 

 Last month I saw one moving slowly along shore at Kirn, only 

 two or three yards from the beach. In August, 1825, a pure 

 white porpoise was shot off Millport and brought ashore (8). I 

 do not remember hearing of a white porpoise elsewhere. 



8. [Orca gladiator, Gray. Killer or Grampus. — There seems 

 little doubt but that this species has occurred in our waters, 

 but as no capture is on record, it is here given within square 

 brackets. Both the " Statistical Accounts " include it — the new 

 one speaking of "the depredations of the porpus, grampus, and 

 other destructive sea-fishes, particularly the grampus, which 

 comes up nearly as far as the salt water reaches almost every 

 tide at flood during certain seasons in pursuit of salmon, of 

 which it devours great numbers." 



Mr. Gray says that he knows it, e.g., as occurring on the Ballan- 

 trae Banks in spring ; and Mr. John Paterson saw two off Bute in 

 June, 1898 (10). The old "Statistical Account" calls it the 

 " Bucker," and as the name Grampus is given to the Pilot Whale 

 by fishermen, there cannot but be uncertainty as to the correct 

 species when a " Grampus " is heard of. It seems not unlikely 

 that the Kilbrannan Sound " sea-serpent " story of the summer 

 of 1899 may be founded on the appearance of an individual or 

 individuals of this savage species.] 



9. Lagenorliynchus albirostris, Gray. White-beaked Dolphin. 

 — Next to the porpoise, this seems to be our commonest 

 Cetacean, although it is only in recent years that it has been con- 

 clusively added to our Scottish fauna. The first authentic record 

 in Scottish waters is that of an individual shot in Kilbrannan 

 Sound in September, 1879, by Mr. J. Y. Buchanan. The skull 

 is in the Anatomical Museum, Edinburgh Museum. Sir William 

 Turner saw in these waters in August, 1887, what he believed 

 to be a school of the White-beaked Dolphin (20). 



The late Dr. James Dunlop said that they are to be seen daily 

 in Kilbrannan Sound, and the four specimens (a stuffed example 

 and three skeletons, one a foetus) which were in the Kelvingrove 

 Museum, were all captured in the Sound in 1894 and 1895 (4), 

 and presented by Dr. Dunlop to the Museum. In November, 



