Gatty Marine Laboratory^ St. Aiidrews. 



525 



tissues being infiltrated with blood, and with a tendency to 

 rapid putrefaction. The bruise extended from the scapula to 

 the .humerus and the armpit as well as to the hand. The 

 macerated left humerus showed an ovoid depressed surface, 

 1 inch by half an inch, about an inch from the anterior edge 

 of the head, and somewhat obliquely situated on the front of 

 the bone and near its middle. The only explanation of the 

 injury is that the Fleet had been at gun-practice for some 

 time off St. Andrews Bay, and a spent shot or a fragment of 

 a shell may have struck the animal, rendering it more or less 

 helpless on the left side, and causing it to seek the shallow 

 water. 



Nothing occurred in the stomach except mucus and para- 

 sites, and the same with the intestines. 



Mesoplodon hidens from the ventral surface. 



In the accompanying sketch (see figure), which has been 

 made from a photograph by A. W. Brown, the left side is 

 presumed to be partly immersed in the wet sand during a 

 shower of rain, but the flipper and right groove (a) on the 

 throat are shown. The latter seems to follow the trend of the 

 mandible, and ceases before reaching the mid-ventral line. 



Notices of the occurrence of this whale are given in Bell's 

 ' British Quadrupeds ' ^ &c., and the skeletons have been 

 dealt with by Sir William Flowxr and Sir William Turner, 

 the latter of whom has kindly promised to look over the 

 bones of this example. 



2. On an Abnormal Plaice with a Precaudal Fin- frill 

 on the Left Side. 



Tl\e publication of my friend Mr. Boulenger's f very inter- 

 esting example of a malformed plaice from the London 



* Second edition. 



t Proc. Zool. Soc. 1908, pp, 161-164, text-figs. 28 & 29. 



