Occurrence of the Bottle- Nosed or Beaked Whale. 29 



autumn, near Alloa, with preparations." To the best of my 

 knowledge, this paper was not printed, as the publications 

 of the Wernerian Society had ceased to take place some 

 years previous to that date. Fortunately, however, a few 

 facts about these animals have been preserved by Mr William 

 Thompson in the second of his papers on bottle-nosed whales. 

 He states that he was in Edinburgh on 31st October 1845, 

 two days after the capture of the Hyperoodon in Belfast 

 Lough above referred to, and to his astonishment met in the 

 street the carcase of a Hyperoodon being carted to the 

 Zoological Gardens to be cleaned, and the skeleton prepared 

 for the Museum of the University. From Mr Goodsir and 

 his assistant, Mr Melville, he ascertained that this whale 

 was killed in the Firth of Forth on 29th October, that it 

 " measured 28 J feet in a line from the tip of the snout to 

 the middle of the caudal fin, not following the curvature, 

 but as if a plumb-line were dropped from one point to the 

 other. It was a female, and was accompanied \)y a young 

 female (9 feet long measured in the same way), which was 

 still sucking ; the mamma3 of the mother were distended 

 with milk, which appeared very rich in butter, and tasted 

 pleasantly.'' 



Since the year 1854, when I was appointed Demonstrator 

 of Anatomy in the University by the late Professor Goodsir, 

 I have been acquainted with the bones of a Hyperoodon in 

 the University Museum, which, though unmarked, I have 

 always regarded as the specimen taken at Alloa.^ So long 

 as the osteological collection was housed in the University 

 buildings in the South Bridge, through want of room these 

 bones were not articulated ; but when I moved the collection 

 to the Anatomical Museum in the new buildings of the 

 University some months ago I had this skeleton articulated 

 and suspended. The bones were all completely ossified, for 

 the epiphyses were all united to their respective diaphyses. 

 As articulated, the skeleton measured in a straight line from 

 the tip of the lower jaw to the last caudal vertebra, 23 feet 

 8 inches ; and the extreme length of the skull in a straight 



1 Through a clerical error in Mr E. R. Alston's "Fauna of Scotland," 

 Glasgow, 1880, this specimen is said to have been caught at Qaeensferry. 



