72 MAMMALS. 



specimen of such a striking-looking beast been procured, it 

 is more than likely that some special notice would have been 

 taken of it.] 



CETACE^I. 



Obs. Mr. Moodie-Heddle says that there is still considerable 

 mystery attaching to the species of whales obtained in Orkney. 

 He is inclined to think that two species of high-finned Whales 

 are confounded, as also two species of Cachalot. A large 

 whale of close on 60 feet in length was ashore and nearly cap- 

 tured at Longhope about 1880. This was evidently a Cachalot, 

 but did not appear high or square-headed enough for Catodon 

 macrocephalus. 



That our notes on whales are very imperfect we are well 

 aware, but we have tried to make them as accurate as possible. 



Probably there is no class of mammals so little known to 

 the ordinary naturalist as the Cetaceae. This of course arises 

 from the extreme difficulty of studying them in their native 

 haunts ; their comparative rarity, except certain species, and 

 the incomplete view one gets of them in their natural element, 

 render it exceedingly difficult to recognise them either there, 

 or even when stranded on the beach. 



When a huge Rorqual is seen " blowing " the commotion 

 caused thereby, resembling the ricochet of a cannon-ball out 

 at sea that is perhaps put down as a " Tinner " if one of 

 the party who sees this phenomenon knows anything at 

 all of whales, but whether the rare Sibbald's, or the Lesser, 

 or the Common species it is impossible to tell. Again, a 

 lesser animal is seen to send up a much smaller jet. " There 

 goes a Bottlenose," says one ; but how many species again are 

 included in that extraordinary term ! Any small black animal 

 showing its back here and there every now and then above the 

 water is put down, and very often rightly, to a Porpoise, but how 

 many would know that beast when lying dead before them ! And 

 the word Dolphin is used pretty much in the same way. From 

 their position, the Orkney Isles, with perhaps the exception of 



