Occurrence of Sowerhjs Whale in the Firth of Forth. 5 



On the occurrence of Bowerhys Whale (Micropteron bidens) 

 in the Firth of Forth. By Sir Wm. Turnek, M.B., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., Professor of Anatomy in the University of 



Edinburgh. 



(Read 19th December 1888.) 



At the beginning of the present century Mr James Sowerby 

 described by the name of Fhyseter Helens'^ a male cetacean, 

 16 feet long, which was stranded near Brodie House, Elgin- 

 shire. The specific character of the animal was the posses- 

 sion of two teeth, one on each side of the lower jaw. Since 

 that time this cetacean has been known as Sowerby's whale, 

 and though for many years the generic name Mesoplodon, 

 suggested by M. Paul Gervais, was given to it, the most recent 

 writers prefer to employ the older generic term Micropteron^ 

 proposed by A. AVagner, and used by Eschricht and G. 

 Cuvier. 



No subsequent Scottish specimen was observed until I 

 recognised in the Museum of Science and Art in this city a 

 skull which I gave an account of in 1872 to the Royal Society 

 of Edinburgh,^ and which I thought had probably belonged 

 to an animal captured in the Scottish seas. In 1882 I 

 described ^ an imperfect skeleton obtained through the 

 Messrs Anderson from an animal stranded in the preceding 

 year at North Mavine, in Shetland; and in 1885 another 

 specimen, collected by the same gentlemen, and from almost 

 the same locality, came into my possession, and formed the 

 subject of another communication.* A few specimens taken 

 on the coasts of continental Europe and in Ireland have 

 been described by other naturalists, but only one specimen 

 has been recognised on the coast of England, viz., at the 

 mouth of the Humber in September 1885, recorded by Messrs 



^ Sowerby's British Miscellany of New and Rare Animals, vol. i. , 1806. 



- On the occurrence of Ziphius cavirostris in the Shetland Seas, and a 

 comparison of its skull with that of Sowerby's Whale {Mesoplodon Sowerhyi) 

 — Trans. Roy. Soc, Edinburgh, vol. xxvi. 



•^ Proc. Roy. Soc, Edinburgh, January 30, 1882, and Jour, of Anat. and 

 Phys., April 1882. 



■* Jour. Anat. and Phys., October 1885. 



