292 LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



To our own coasts, this Cetacean is a very rare visitor, as 

 is indicated by the following list of recorded examples. The 

 first known specimen was taken in the spring of 1843 ^^ Puck- 

 aster, in the Isle of Wight, its skeleton being now in the 

 British Museum. In February, 1870, a female was caught in a 

 mackerel-net near the Eddystone Lighthouse ; its skeleton 

 is likewise in the National Collection. A third example, 

 also a feniale, was exposed for sale in Billingsgate Market in 

 March of the latter year, having probably been taken in the 

 Channel ; both its skin and skeleton have found a home along- 

 side of the two preceding specimens. In July, 1875, a young 

 male, which was kept alive for some hours in the Brighton 

 Aquarium, was captured at Sidlesham, and in February, 

 1886, a female was caught in a mackerel-net about twenty 

 miles south of the Eddystone Lighthouse, and was exhibited 

 at Plymouth, in the Museum of which town its skeleton is 

 preserved. The last recorded English example was captured 

 in the Solway, on September 30th, 1892, as mentioned in 

 Land and Water for that year (vol. liv., p. 405). Lastly, six 

 specimens were caught in Hillswick, in Shetland, in September, 

 1889, one of which has been carefully described by Sir 

 William Turner in the " Proceedings " of the Physical Society 

 of Edinburgh, vol. xi., p. i. 



THE SHORT-BEAKED DOLPHINS. GENUS 

 LAGENORHYNCHUS. 



Lagenorhjfichus, Gray, Zool. Voy. Erebus and Terror, p. 35 

 (1846). 



Head with a short but not very distinct beak, or beakless ; 

 the beak scarcely exceeding the remainder of the skull in length, 

 depressed, and gradually tapering from the broad base to the 

 extremity ; teeth very small, and forming from 23 to 33 pairs 

 in each jaw ; from 80 to 90 vertebrae in the hack-bone. Th'is 



