sowerby's avhale 105 



SOWEEBYS WHALE. 

 Mesoplodox BIDE^•s {Sowcrhy). 



Of this comparatively scarce species only one example is 

 known to have reached the shores of the south-east of Scot- 

 land. It was found in Dalgety Bay, near Aberdour, on the 

 north side of the Firth of Eorth, in October ISSS, by one of 

 the Earl of Moray's gamekeepers. The head, skeleton, and 

 viscera were procured by Sir "William Turner, who gave a 

 description of the specimen at a meeting of the Eoyal Physical 

 Society in December following ('•' Proceedings," voL x., p. 5), 

 and subsequently described its stomach in the "Journal 

 of Anatomy and Physiology" (voL xxiii). The animal 

 was a male. Its extreme length in a straight line was 

 15 feet 1 inch, and its weight 15 cwts. The skeleton is 

 preserved in the Anatomical Museum of the Edinburgh 

 University. 



As this Cetacean is probably a migratory species, visiting 

 the shores of Northern Europe in the fall of the year, we may 

 reasonably look forward to the occurrence of other examples 

 in our waters at no very distant date. 



BELUGA OK WHITE WHALE. 



Delphixaptegus leucas (Fall). 



The Beluga can only be regarded as a casual visitant of 

 extreme rarity, its claim to a place in the fauna of the district 

 resting on the occurrence of a single (male) specimen in the 

 Firth of Forth so far back as 1815. It was killed early in 



I 



