The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District, 159 
BALENOPTERA ROSTRATA (Fab.). Lesser RORQUAL. 
The Lesser Rorqual seems to enter the North Sea more 
frequently than its congeners, and as a consequence more 
examples of it have occurred in our waters. It can only 
be looked upon, however, as an occasional visitant. 
On 15th May 1852, one 14 feet in length was captured 
in the salmon stake-nets near Largo (Magazine of Natural 
History, v., p. 570), and about two years later (February 
1854) Dr Knox obtained a young one, 9 feet 11 inches in 
length, from “near the Queensferry” (Proc. Roy. Soc. Edin., 
1, p. 63; and Naturalists’ Lnbrary, “ Whales,” p. 143). The 
next I have a note of was found in the sea, apparently dead, 
near the Bell Rock, on 7th September 1857, and taken to 
Leith; it was 14 feet 5 inches long—see Proceedings of the 
Royal Physical Society, 1., p. 441, where it is described by the 
late Dr M‘Bain. According to Alston (Scottish Mammalia, 
p. 18) another was caught in the Firth of Forth in 1858. 
_ On 8th September 1870, an example about 18 feet long, and 
of which the skull and baleen are preserved in the Anatomical 
Museum of the Edinburgh University, was stranded near 
Burntisland;! and in September of the following year (1871) 
one was taken at Dunbar (skull, etc., in Anatomical Museum) ; 
while in 1872 another was caught in the herring-nets off 
Anstruther (Alston, Scottish Mammalia, p. 18). In the 
Anatomical Museum there is also the skull of a young male 
from Elie in 1879. Still more recently one (27 feet long) 
which I had the satisfaction of seeing in the flesh, was 
stranded at Granton Quarry on 24th January 1888 (Scots- 
man, 30th January), and in November following a small 
example was obtained near Alloa; both, I understand, were 
secured by Sir William Turner. 
In the autumn of 1874, when on the North Sea, not far 
from the mouth of the Forth, I observed a Whale rise to the 
surface several times to “ blow.” It was probably an example 
of this species. 
10On 29th July 1869, one 13 feet long was stranded near Arbroath (Scottish 
Naturalist, i., p. 111). - 
