GRAMPUS 109 



have a note is that recorded by the late Mr John Gibson in 

 the " Proceedings " of the Royal Physical Society (vol. iv., 

 p. 99). The record refers to a male having the following 

 dimensions: Total length along the curve of the back, 

 21 feet 10 inches; girth of body, 13 feet; height of dorsal 

 fin, 3 feet 10 inches. It was captured about a mile 

 west of Granton, on 18th March 1876, and " on being 

 dragged ashore, while still alive, it gave forth shrill 

 piercing cries, somewhat resembling in their sharpness a 

 woman's voice." 



A few years ago, I observed in the seaward portion of 

 the Firth of Forth several Cetaceans, which, from the 

 height and shape of their dorsal fins, I took to be of the 

 present species. 



PILOT OR CAAING WHALE. 



GLOBICEPHALUS MELAS (Traill). 



The Pilot Whale may be regarded as an irregular spring 

 and autumn visitant, though comparatively few authenti- 

 cated 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 Ce'taces 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 



