124 ON A FEMALE SPECIMEN OF THE COMMON RORQUAL 



bound to confess that the distril)ution of the species has not yet been 

 satisfactorily accounted for on any other supposition. Further, Mr. 

 French's arguments on behalf of the antiquity o{ P. elatior as a species 

 on account of its non-variability are rather weakened by facts brought 

 forward in my own paper proving its variability within certain limits. 

 I take this opportunity of stating that, since the appearance of 

 my paper, I have been collecting information as to the exact distribu- 

 tion of P. elatior in Britain, and I shall welcome any facts bearing 

 upon the point. Beside the very sharply-defined area which the 

 species occupies in Essex, as shown in my paper, it also extends 

 over large portions of Cambridgeshire and Suffolk, and there is at 

 least one locality within the boundaries of Norfolk. I believe, also, 

 that it crosses the Essex border into Hertfordshire in the vicinity of 

 Stanstead Montfitchet, although this is not stated in the recently- 

 published " Flora of Hertfordshire." There also are localities in Bed- 

 fordshire I believe. 



Miller Christy.] 



ON A FEMALE SPECIMEN OF THE COMMON 

 RORQUAL {BAL.'ENOPPERA MUSCULUS), CAP- 

 TURED NEAR BURNHAM. 



By WALTER CROUCH, F.Z.S. 



\_Read February zSth, iSgi.\ 



With Plate IV. 



A LTHOLTGH the Whale which was stranded in the River 

 "^^ Crouch, on the 12th February, belongs to a species which has 

 occurred more frequently on the British coast than any other of the 

 Baleen Whales, yet it is one worthy of record, not only as an Essex 

 specimen, but as exhibiting a very marked and curious asymmetry of 

 epidermal colour. 



The animal appears to have entered the river on the early 

 morning flood-tide, and was first seen by Isaac Courtman, a Burnham 

 dredgerman, who, when proceeding to his work, found it floundering 

 and blowing in the shallow water by Hollivvell Point, on the north 

 shore of the river near the oyster layings, about four miles east of 

 Burnham. Nearly opposite this .spot on the south side, by Fowlness 

 Island, the specimen of Rudolphi's Rorqual was taken in November, 



