The Mammalian Fauna of the Edinburgh District. 165 
GLOBICEPHALUS MELAS (77raill). Pitot WHALE OR 
CAaInG WHALE. 
The Pilot Whale may be regarded as an irregular spring 
and autumn visitant, though comparatively few authenticated 
instances of its occurrence have been recorded. There can 
be no doubt it is constantly confounded with the last species 
by the uninitiated, under the name of “ Grampus.” 
The twenty-five Cetaceans mentioned by Sibbald as stranded 
at Cramond Island, in the Firth of Forth, in 1690 (“ Phalaino- 
logia,’ p. 10), are referred by Professor Van Beneden to this 
species (see his recent “Histoire naturelle des Cétacés des 
mers d'Europe,” p. 508). The writer of the “ New Statistical 
Account” of the parish of Alloa considered that the “school” 
of small whales which occurred in the upper part of the 
estuary in October 1814 were referable to the present species, 
but, as I have already shown (p. 164), Neill’s description of 
them, published in the Scots Magazine at the time, makes it 
perfectly clear that they belonged to the last species. From 
a statement in Don’s list of Forfarshire animals (“ Headrick’s 
Agriculture of Angus,” App., p. 39), it would appear that 
true “Ca’ing” Whales were stranded up the Firth of Tay 
prior to 1813. 
The Zoologist for 1856 (p. 5095) contains a description by 
Dr J. Hardy of a male G. melas, measuring 20 feet in length 
and 11 feet in greatest girth, which came ashore among the 
rocks of Greenheugh, a short way to the west of St Helen’s 
church, Oldcambus, Berwickshire, on 29th March of that 
year. At the same time another—much smaller—also came 
ashore a few miles farther west in the vicinity of Thornton- 
loch, in East Lothian. In April 1867 a herd, supposed to 
consist of about two hundred animals, was observed in the 
Firth of Forth for about a fortnight. On the 19th the Volun- 
teer Artillery at Portobello practised at them without success. 
The following day they were attacked by fishing crews and 
others from Prestonpans, Newhaven, and other villages, and 
no fewer than twenty-three of them slain, amidst scenes of 
intense and savage excitement. The bulk of the slaughter 
took place in the bay on the east side of Granton harbour. 
