CORRESPONDEX'CE. 



Occurrence of Sowerby's Whale (Mesoplodon bidois) on the Norfolk 



Coast. 



On December ig, 1892, I received a telegram stating that a " strange fish " was 

 on shore at Overstrand, near Cromer, and subsequently that it was some species of 

 Whale ; on the 20th, in company with Mr. S.F. Harmer, of the Museum of Zoology 

 and Anatomy, Cambridge, who happened to be staying in this neighbourhood, I 

 went to Overstrand, and we found it to be an adult female of the above rare species. 

 Its history, we learned, was as follows. At about 8 a.m. on Sunday, December 18, 

 one of the Overstrand fishermen saw from the cliff an object lying in the water near 

 the beach, which he at first took to be a log of wood, but soon perceived to be a 

 " large fish." After obtaining assistance he fastened a noose over its tail, and secured 

 it by an anchor, till it was placed on a trolley and drawn up the gangway to a shed 

 on the cliff, where we saw it. The animal was alive when first observed, but died 

 before it was taken from the water. As placed, it was, unfortunately, in such a position 

 as to render photographing impossible, and our attempts proved unsuccessful ; I 

 believe no photograph was taken after it had been removed from the shed. Before- 

 our arrival it had been eviscerated, and a very advanced foetus was taken from it. 

 We made a very careful examination of the exterior, and hope to publish a full 

 description in due course. ,In the meantime, I may say that the female was of a uniform 

 glossy black colour, with the exception of the anterior edges of the flukes of the tail, 

 and the jaws, which were grey, of various shades, in places almost white, and the body 

 was spotted and blotched with white or pale grey in a very curious manner ; the fisher- 

 men told us that when quite fresh out of the water there was a bluish shade pervading 

 the whole. The young animal was black above, and reddish on the sides and lower 

 parts, probably owing to the effusion of blood into the skin, which would doubtless 

 otherwise have been white. The total length of the old female, measured in a straight 

 line to the centre of the tail, was 16 ft. 2 in., and that of the young one 5 ft. 2 in. ; 

 across the flukes of the tail the adult female measured 3 ft. 8 in. 



The present is the nineteenth known example of this remarkable animal, all of 

 which have been met with in the North Atlantic during the present century, but with 

 the exception of one taken in 1889 at Atlantic City, which came into the possession 

 of the United States National Museum at Washington, and of which no account 

 has, I believe, at present been published, in no other instance has an example in 

 perfect condition come under the notice of a Cetologist. Individuals, or their 

 remains, have been found in Scotland and Ireland, but the only previous English 

 example was met with at the mouth of the Humber, in September, 1885. 



T. Southwell. 

 Norwich, /t7;n((?;-j' g, 1893. 



[This specimen has been purchased for the Rothschild Museum, Tring. — Ed.] 



Movement of Diatoms. 



Two notices have appeared in Natural Science containing criticisms of my 

 paper on the occurrence of " Pseudopodia " among the diatoms Cyclotella and 

 Melosira. One of these was by Mr. Jabez Hogg, the other — more recent — by Mr. 

 Minchin. They both assert that the discovery of these so-called pseudopodia is a 

 very old one ; that they have often been described ; and Mr. Hogg gives their 

 compositions. I should be glad to make two remarks in reply. 



Firstly, my slides have been examined by a majority of the best Diatomists 

 and Biologists in England, and not a single one has suggested that he had either 

 seen or heard of anything like these pseudopodia. The}- have also been sent to 



