121 



skin with a slightly whitened finger. The polished surface gave the 

 whole body a greyish appearance, and it was said to be grey." 1 



The length of the Eazorback usually varies from 60 to 80 feet, but 

 in extreme age it will reach to over 100 feet. 



Inhab. the North Sea, occasionally entering the Mediterranean. 



Mr. Van Beneden considers that this species is probably identical 

 with the whale described by Aristotle as a large cetacean, having 

 within its mouth bristles like those of a hog, instead of teeth, and 

 found occasionally in the waters of the Mediterranean. The surmise 

 of this learned writer is corroborated in a measure by the fact that 

 in modern times no other baleen-bearing whale is known to enter 

 within this inland sea. 



The common habitat of this species is in the higher latitudes of the 

 North Sea, but many individuals during winter travel southward to 

 more genial climes, and thus have been frequently captured on the 

 coasts of Great Britain, France, and Holland, and sometimes within 

 the Mediterranean. 



The British Museum specimen is the skeleton of an animal said to 

 be 102 feet in length, and which was found dead, floating on the sea 

 in Plymouth Sound, in 1831. Another whale, about the same time and 

 place, was discovered with its gullet filled with a large quantity of 

 pilchards, by which it was supposed to have been choked. 



In November, 1869, a fine example of this species was stranded at 

 Longniddry, in the Frith of Forth, and a few days after the occurrence 

 a very characteristic and picturesque representation of the animal, as 

 it lay helpless on the beach, appeared in the Illustrated London News ; 

 but the delineation is not attended with that scrupulous accuracy of 

 detail sufficient to meet the requirements of the matter-of-fact 

 naturalist. 



The length of this latter animal is recorded as being, in a straight 

 line, 78 feet 9 inches, with a girt of 33 feet ; the breadth of the 

 forefin 11 feet, and that of the tail 15 feet. The colour is described as 

 slate-grey, with whitish tints beneath. The lower jaw projected con- 

 siderably beyond the upper one. 



PHTSALUS SIBBALDII, Gray. Sibbald's Pinner. 

 Synonyms Physalus Sibbaldii, Gray, S. & W., p. 160. 

 Physalus latirostris, Flower, P.Z.S., 1865. 

 Cuvierim Sibbaldii, Gray, S.& W., p. 380; SuppL, p. 54. 

 Balcenoptera Carolina, Malm. 

 Bal&noptera Sibbaldii, Yan Beneden & Gervais. 

 Bal<na maximus borealis ? Knox. 

 Great Northern Rorqual? Jardine, Nat. Libr. (Knox). 

 The Steypireyor of the Icelanders. 



1 " Orkney Whales" Heddle, P.Z.S. 



