8 



Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



If we look at the months in which each specimen of 

 Sowerby's whale has been taken — and as a rule this has been 

 recorded — we shall see that the capture has usually been 

 during the warmer period of the year, in the summer and 

 autumn. February in one instance, March in another, are 

 the earliest dates, whilst two specimens have been obtained 

 as late as October, but none has been recognised in the depth 

 of winter. It is probable, therefore, that this cetacean, like 

 Hyperoodon, is migratory, and visits the coasts of Northern 

 Europe in its wanderings from warmer to colder latitudes, 

 and vice versa. The sex has been recorded in fifteen cases, 

 and of these eleven were males, so that the latter sex has 

 distinctly predominated, and several of these have been 

 adults, with the ossification of the skeleton completed. In 

 this respect Sowerby's whale contrasts in a marked manner 

 with Hyperoodon, the specimens of which that have been 

 stranded on our coasts have mostly been females, though 

 occasionally accompanied by a young male. 



The animal from Dalgety Bay was a male, and had the 

 following measurements : — 



Table II. 

 Dimensions of Micropteron bidens. 

 Extreme length in straight line to middle of tail, . 

 Girth of head round eminence in front of blow-liole, 

 Girth in plane of blow-hole, . 

 Girth in plane of external auditory meatus, 

 Blow -hole, transverse diameter of, . 

 Angle of mouth to tip of lower jaw, 

 From tooth to tip of lower jaw, 

 From eye-slit to angle of mouth, 

 Antero-posterior diameter of eye-slit. 

 Eye-slit to auditory meatus, 

 Height of top of head from surface to ground, 

 Mandible projected beyond rostrum, 

 Height of dorsal fin, .... 

 Antero-posterior diameter of base of dorsal fin, 

 Weight of entire animal, 



Form of Head. — As the head was entire, I drew up the 

 following description of it. The beak w^as pointed, and 

 measured 22J inches from the centre of the blowhole to the 

 tip of the upper jaw. The blowhole was crescentic, and with 



