The Zoologist— July, 1867. 801 



Pilot Whales in the Firth of Forth. By Edward R. Alston, Esq, 



On the 26th of April I had an opportunity of examining a pilot 

 whale, or voundheaded porpoise {Globeocephalus melas, Trail), one of 

 a large number which were takeu in the Firth of Forth on the 20th of 

 that month. This specimen was brought to Glasgow by the captors, a 

 party of Newhaven fishermen, and exhibited to the public as a 

 "grampus." As our knowledge of cetaceans is so limited, and as 

 opportunities for careful observation are so few and far between, I have 

 noted the following description and measurements of this example, 

 which was a female. 



In general outline it agreed with Prof. Bell's woodcut (' British 

 Quadrupeds,' p. 483), except towards the tail, where the body was very 

 much compressed, thin, rather broad, and narrowing suddenly just 

 above the tail-fin, the angle of the caudal and ventral outlines being 

 here acute and knife-like. The greatest girth appeared to be just in 

 front of the back-fin. Lips thick; forehead or snout very bulging and 

 rounded; teeth, which showed less than an inch above the gums, 

 conical and slightly curved; tongue thick and fleshy. Blow-hole 

 about three inches in length, crescent-shaped, with the horns directed 

 towards the snout; eyes very small and placed near the angle of the 

 gape. Flippers very long, narrow, tapering and scimitar-shaped, 

 broadest towards the base, but narrowed just at the wrist. Back-fin 

 long and sloping; tail-fin lunate, tapered at the points, and deeply 

 cleft, reminding one very forcibly of the form of a screw-propeller. 

 Teats two in number, ventral, placed one on each side of the anus, 

 Skin tough, oily, very smooth and shining about an eighth of an inch 

 in thickness. Colour deep black all over, except a whitish heart- 

 shaped mark under the throat and a broad pale streak running thence 

 to the vent. Dimensions : — 



