Mr. W. Thompson on the Bottle-nosed IJliale, 375 



lous foot. There are no spines. The cirrus or branchial fila- 

 ment is soft and filiform. 



It is necessary to observe that this description is drawn up 

 from the examination of a single specimen, which had grown 

 soft by maceration in the spirits, and was somewhat injured 

 by the carriage. Thus the filaments or cirri of several seg- 

 ments were broken away ; and I ought to mention that there 

 were no traces of any on the third, fourth, and fifth segments. 

 The specimen was rather more than an inch in length, but, 

 from its structure, the worm is obviously capable of being 

 elongated to a considerable extent. 



Plate XI. Fig. 11. Travisia Forhesii^ oi the naXwcsX size. 12. The same, 

 magnified. 13. The cephalic segments. 14. A side view of a segment 

 from near the middle. 15. A view of a caudal segment on the dorsal aspect. 

 16. The same on the ventral aspect. 17. The anal segments. 18. A few 

 bristles. 



XLIV. — Note on the Occurrence at various times of the Bottle- 

 nosed Whale (Hyperoodon Butzkopf, Lacep.) on the coast of 

 Ireland ; and on its nearly simultaneous appearance on dif- 

 ferent parts of the British coast in the autumn of 1839. By 

 William Thompson, Esq., Vice-President of the Natural 

 History Society of Belfast. 



In BelPs * British Quadrupeds,^ &c. published in 1837, the 

 latest work treating of our Cetacea, it is observed, with refer- 

 ence to the two individuals of this species recorded by Dale 

 and Hunter, that ^^ these are the documents upon which alone 

 we have to depend as to the occurrence of the Hyperoodon on 

 the British shores." The works of Jenyns* and Jardinefdo 

 not contain any reference to other British specimens. More 

 recently Mr. Thompson of Hull has, in the Magazine of Na- 

 tural History for 1838 (p. 221), described a whale of this spe- 

 cies which was stranded near that town in 1837, and whose 

 skeleton is preserved in the Hull Literary and Philosophical 

 Society. 

 The first particular record known to me of the occurrence 



* Manual of British Vertebrate Animals, 1835. 

 t Naturalist's Library, vol. on Whales, 1837. 



