BEAKED WHALE. 281 



are in the Museum at Edinburgh, was taken on some part of 

 the coast of Scotland; and in April, 1881, an adult example, 

 measuring 14 feet in length, was cast ashore near Burrafirth 

 Voe, on the west coast of the main island of ihe Shetland 

 group, this specimen being described by Sir W. Turner in the 

 "Journal of Anatomy and Physiology," vol. xvi., p. 458; 

 while a second male was obtained from Shetland in May, 

 1885. In September of the latter year another example was 

 stranded in shallow water just inside the Spurn Head, at the 

 mouth of the Humber, but subsequently managed to get away. 

 This spec'men, which measured 15 feet 9 inches in length, is 

 the first which has ever been seen on the English coasts ; it is 

 noticed by Messrs. T. Southwell and Eagle Clarke in the 

 Annals and Magazifie of Natural History {?,QnQS 5, vol. xvii., 

 p. 53). Yet another specimen visited the Firth of Forth in 

 1888, of which mention is made by Sir W. Turner in the "Pro- 

 ceedings" of the Physical Society of Edinburgh (vol. x., p. 5); 

 while in the Field for the second half of 1892 (p. 1003), Mr. 

 Tegetmeier records the stranding o"" a fine specimen of this 

 Whale on the coast of Norfolk in December of that year. The 

 latter specimen, w^e believe, his been secured for Mr. Roths- 

 child's Museum at Tring Park. 



Habits. — Unfortunately, scarcely anything is known of the 

 mode of life of the Beaked Whales of this and the allied genera, 

 all of which are mainly or entirely known only from stranded 

 specimens. From this rarity it may, however, be inferred that 

 these animals are essentially inhabitants of the open sea, 

 and probably only visit the coasts when driven thither by 

 bad weather. That they were formerly abundant in the seas 

 surrounding our islands, is attested by the frequency with 

 which their fossilised beaks occur in the so-called crag deposits 

 of the east coast, which belong to the Pliocene period. 



