RISSOS DOLPHiy IN THR FORTH. 25^ 



The Occurrence of Risso's Dolphin, Grampus griseus, Cuv., 

 in the Forth. 



By James Eggleton. 



[Read Sincl December, 1904.] 



Ox 17th October last Mr. James M'Nie presented to the Kelvin- 

 grove Museum, Glasgow, what he termed a rare " Blackfish," 

 which I identified as the rare British species, Grampus griseus, 

 or Risso's Dolphin or Grampus. 



So far, the records of the occurrence of this cetacean from the 

 British coasts are very few, and this, as far as I know, is only 

 the second record of its occurrence along the eastern shores of 

 Great Britain. 



The first recorded British specimen was stranded near 

 Puckaster, Isle of Wight, in 1843, the skull of which was pre- 

 sented to the British Museum by the Rev. C. Bury, who described 

 the specimen in the Zoologist for 1845. On 28th February, 

 1870, a large female, 10 feet 6 inches in length, was captured 

 in a mackerel net near Eddystone Lighthouse, the skin and 

 skeleton of which are also preserved in the British Museum. 

 It is figured and described by Professor Flower in the Trans- 

 actions of the Zoological Society for 1871, and in the same paper 

 is also figured and described a young female, 6 feet 1 inch in 

 length, which had been sold, about a month after the one 

 previously alluded to, in the fish market at Billingsgate. The 

 exact locality where the last mentioned was taken oould not 

 be ascertained, but it was also probably caught in the Channel. 

 Dr. Murie, in the Journal of Anatomy and Physiology (1870), 

 has made some interesting notes on the visceral anatomy, as 

 well as the external characters of this individual. According 

 to Lydekker, in the Royal Natural History, Vol. HI., other two 



