SEALS, WHALES, AND DOLPHINS OF THE CLYDE SEA AREA. 191 



The Seals, Whales, and Dolphins of the Clyde Sea Area. 



By Hugh Boyd Watt. 



[Read 28th May, 1901.] 



N.B. — The numbers within brackets refer to the list at the end of the paper. 



The Clyde Sea Area includes all the tidal waters contained 

 within a straight line drawn from the Mull of Kintyre to Loch 

 Ryan. In respect of its marine mammals, it may be regarded 

 as an almost land-locked and small portion of the region which 

 Dr. P. L. Sclater calls Arctatlantis, and of which the chai-ac- 

 teristic genera are Halichcerus, Cystophora, and Hyperoodon 

 (11). In "Clyde" and adjacent waters Cystophora is mi- 

 recorded, but the other two are represented. 



A considerable advance can be claimed in our knowledge since 

 1876, when the late Mr. E. R. Alston could only name three 

 species of marine mauunals from Clyde waters (1), a number 

 which was not added to in his subsequent paper published by this 

 Society (2). The following annotated list shows that we now have 

 definite records of eight species, and, in addition to these, there 

 are four further species named within square brackets, as con- 

 firmation of their occurrence is awanting. This wUl be forth- 

 coming in the course of time, I feel convinced. Other records, 

 which I believe to be erroneous, I have excluded. One such is 

 the Greenland Wliale (Balcena mysticetus, Linn.) (12), whose 

 occurrence in British waters at any time is not admitted. Here 

 it may also be said that no fewer than eight species of Cetaceans 

 are named from " Clyde " in the two " Statistical Accounts of 

 Scotland " (1791-7 and 1845), but only those otherwise confirmed 

 are given below. 



Not infrequently newspaper reports of '' Whales " appear, and 

 while no scientific reliability can attach to these statements, yet 

 they are evidence that Cetaceans are not so uncommon in our 

 Firth as is generally supposed. Unlike land mammals, marine 

 mammals have uninterrupted means of passing from one region 



