A HISTORY OF KENT 



crops. Black specimens are not infrequent ; 

 also occasionally some of a sandy and slate 

 colour. A large number of a beautiful white 

 variety existed on Mount Meadow, Cobham. 



These bred promiscuously with the com- 

 mon coloured variety, but the young ones 

 were usually either the one colour or the 

 other, seldom mingled. 



UNGULATA 



37. Red Deer. Cervus elaphus, Linn. 



At Wateringbury red deer are iiept for 

 hunting by Mr. Leney's staghounds. Some 

 years ago one was left out on the Cobham 

 Hall estate for several months, and became 

 recognized as a native. 



38. Fallow Deer. Cervus dama, Linn. 



Preserved in several parks, and there are 

 usually outliers which occasionally breed out. 

 The usual colours are : (a) true fallow, {b) 

 mineral, (c) black (very dark backs with no 

 mottling), {/£) white (dingy). The two latter 



colours are less common than the others, and 

 are not popular ; park keepers are often 

 instructed not to retain them, and conse- 

 quently at the annual selection of fawns for 

 preservation these are left unmarked, to be 

 killed at four to six weeks old, with all super- 

 fluous ones. The others are killed at six 

 years old 



Although usually kept in enclosed parks 

 and fed in winter with hay, corn, acorns 

 and chestnuts, these animals are con- 

 sidered to be wild, and in a recent case were 

 successfully claimed by an heir-at-law against 

 the legatee of the former owner. 



CETACEA 



39. White-beaked Bottle-nose. Lagenorhyn- 



chus albirostris. Gray. 

 Has been recorded from Folkestone and 

 Ramsgate ; several ascended the Colne in 

 September 1889. 



40. Common Dolphin. Delphinus delphis, 



Linn. 

 One specimen was secured at Heme Bay in 

 1868, and purchased by the late Frank Buck- 

 land. 



41. Bottle-nose Dolphin. Tursiops tursio, 



Fabr. 

 Male, female and young occurred in the 

 Blackwater in 1878. 



42. Common Porpoise. Phocana communis, 



Linn. 

 Common round the coast and in the Thames 

 estuary. 



43. Killer. Orca gladiator. Gray. 



A specimen measuring 31 ft. was killed at 

 Greenwich in 1793, and, according to Murie, 

 others have been taken in the Blackwater. 



44. Pilot Whale. Globicephalus melas, Traill. 

 A skull from the mouth of the Thames 



(purchased in 1858), is preserved in the British 

 Museum. 



45. Beaked Whale. Hyperoodon rostratus, Miill. 

 The skeleton of an adult female, captured 



at Whitstable in i860, is preserved in the 

 British Museum. Large specimens, over 25 

 ft. long, appeared at the mouth of the 



Thames in July 1891, and were brought ashore 

 at Leigh and Barking Creek. 



46. Cachalot, or Sperm Whale. Physeter 



macrocephalus, Linn. 

 Over a century ago, on two separate 

 occasions, a number of these enormous 

 cetaceans — the species attaining a length of 

 30 to 80 ft. — were cast ashore dead, after a 

 storm, on the Kentish and Essex coasts. One 

 alive even got up the Thames to as far as the 

 Lower Hope. In 1829, one 62 ft. long was 

 secured by the Whitstable fishermen, and in 

 August 1898 another 42^ ft. in length, went 

 ashore at Birchington. 



47. Common Rorqual or Fin-Whale. Balie- 

 noptera physetus, Linn, {musculus, Linn.). 



Several times recorded from the Thames. 

 In June 1658, one 60 ft. long was killed at 

 Greenwich. The latest appearance of this 

 whale was in November 1899, when a fully 

 adult couple was observed between the 

 Albert Docks and Barking Creek. 



48. Lesser Rorqual. Balcenoptera rostrata 

 Fabr. 



Also several times recorded from the mouth 

 of the Thames. A female 17 ft. long was 

 killed in the Blackwater in September 1900. 



49. Rudolphi's Rorqual. Balanoptera 

 borealis. Less. 



One specimen, 35 ft. long, was stranded 

 outside Tilbury Dock in October 1887, and a 

 second was captured at GiUingham in the 

 Medway in August 1888. 



306 



