108 CETACEA 



occurrence of several " Orae "in the Forth (at Culross and 

 Blackness) in May 1691, and from his description of the 

 animals there can be no doubt they belonged to the present 

 species (Van Beneden so regards them in his " Histoire 

 naturelle des Ce'taces des mers d'Europe," p. 441). 



In the "Scots Magazine" for October 1814 (p. 733), Patrick 

 Neill gave an interesting account of a herd of " Grampuses " 

 which appeared in the estuary of the Forth in the beginning 

 of that month. On the 6th, fifteen of them were killed at the 

 mouth of the Devon, about two miles above Alloa, and of 

 those which then escaped two were captured near Tullibody 

 and two near Stirling. They were of various lengths, from 

 9 to 20 feet, and of both sexes. From the detailed measure- 

 ments given of one of the largest, we learn that the length of 

 the dorsal fin was 3 feet 3 inches, the length of the flippers 

 o feet, and their breadth 2 feet 3 inches. From these facts, 

 and the statements that " the back and sides were jet black, 

 and shining ; the belly pure white ; and there was a large 

 oblong white compartment behind each eye;" also that 

 "there were two beautiful rows of teeth, 24 in each jaw, 

 making 48 in all," there can be no doubt the animals 

 belonged, as Neill inferred, to the present species, and not to 

 the next, the Caaing Whale, as the writer of the " New 

 Statistical Account" of Alloa (Clackmannanshire, 1840, p. 9) 

 seems to have thought. 



Fleming, in his "British Animals" (1828, p. 84), states 

 that in the Firth of Tay, the Grampus " goes nearly as far 

 up as the salt-water reaches, almost every tide at flood, 

 during the months of July and August, in pursuit of salmon, 

 of which it devours immense numbers." In all likelihood 

 the animals on whose movements this statement was based, 

 represented other species besides the present. The latest 

 authenticated capture of the Killer in our waters of which I 



