NOTES AND QUERIES. 261 



produced by the animal was liquid and thinner than any animal-oil he 

 ever saw. He now regrets that from his ignorance of the value of the 

 specimen lie allowed it to be destroyed. He describes the lungs as very 

 dark, and so like liver in appearance that he could not distinguish one from 

 the other by colour. The capture of this cetacean occurs so rarely on our 

 coasts (five times only) as to make it worth recording, especially as this is 

 the first specimen which has been found east of the Straits of Dover, and 

 so far north. Without doubt many other cetaceans suffer a similar fate, 

 the popular idea being that all the larger ones are Whales and all the 

 smaller ones Porpoises (although some of them are distinguished by such 

 names as " finners," "bottle-noses," &c), and that there is only one thing 

 to be done with them, namely, to extract the oil, in ignorance of the fact 

 that entire specimens would often fetch more money for museum purposes 

 than could otherwise be obtained. — Henry Laver (Head St., Colehester). 



Swedenborg's Whale. — At a recent meeting of the Scientific Society 

 of Upsala, Dr. C. Aurivillius read a paper on the skeleton of the so-called 

 Swedenborg Whale (Eubalena svedenborgii, Lillj.), discovered last November 

 in the province of Halland, in a layer of marl 50 ft. above the sea. Remains 

 of this species of Whale have only been found once before, viz., early last 

 century, when some parts of one were discovered in the province of 

 Western Gothland, 330 ft. above the sea, and 70 miles inland. It was at 

 first believed that they were the bones of some giant, but it is said that 

 Swedenborg discovered their true nature. The skeleton has been presented 

 to the Upsala Museum. 



BIRDS. 



The Re-appearance of Pallas's Sand Grouse in the British Islands. 

 — Letters from all parts of the country have reached us, announcing the 

 re-appearance of Pallas's Sand Grouse, generally in small flocks, and 

 several single birds have been picked up dead, having come in contact with 

 telegraph-wires. Prof. Newton reports that he has seen three eggs which 

 agree in all respects with authentic examples of those of Pallas's Sand 

 Grouse, and which were taken in this country on May 20th. It is to be 

 hoped that if any others are discovered they will be left to be hatched, that 

 the fact of the young being reared in this country may be satisfactorily 

 established. We are glad to learn that at a recent meeting of the Norfolk 

 and Norwich Naturalists' Society, Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., President, in 

 the chair, measures were concerted for the protection of these birds, and 

 letters directed to be addressed to all the principal landowners in the county 

 with that object. In addition to the live specimen sent to the Zoological 

 Gardens from Berwick, on June 2nd, two others from Scotland have been 

 lately presented by the Duke of Argyll. The following letters on the 

 subject reached us too late for insertion with those which appeared in 

 the June number of ' The Zoologist': — 



