ON cuvier's whale. 559 



38. On Specimens oF Cuvier's Whale (ZipJmis cavirostrls) 

 from the Irish Coast. By Sidney F. Harmer, Sc.D., 

 F.R.S., F.Z.S., Keeper of Zoology in the British 

 Museum *. 



[Received October 15, 1915 : Read October 26, 1915.] 



Index. 

 Geogeaphical : Page 



New records of the occurrence oi ZipJiius cavirostris in British 



waters 559, 561 



Distribution 560 



StEUCTUEE, ETC. ;" 



Coloration and skin-raarkings 562 



Teeth 560,562,564 



Sexual differences 663 



StSTEMATIC : , 



The Irish specimens belong to Z. cavirostris 665 



Among the Cetacea included in lists of the British species, the 

 subject of this notice is one on which further information is 

 specially desirable. Its claim to be regai'ded as British was 

 established by Professor (now Sir Wihiam) Turner (1872, 1912), 

 on the evidence of a skull obtained off Hamna Voe, Northmaven, 

 Shetland, and now in the Anatomical Museum of the University 

 of Edinburgh. So far as I have been able to ascertain, this is 

 the only authenticated record of the occurrence of Ziphhts cavi- 

 rostris in the British area. Van Beneden indeed states (1888, 

 pp. 87, 91) that a male specimen of this species was stranded on 

 the Irish Coast (place and date not indicated)^ and that its 

 skeleton is in a Dublin Museiuii* In order to obtain information 

 with regard to this record I wrote to Dr. B.. F. Scharfi', Keeper 

 of the Natural History Collections in the National Museum, 

 Dublin, who has been good enough to infomi me that he knows 

 nothing whatever of the supposed ZijyJiius^ and suggests that 

 Van Beneden may have mistaken a record of an Ii ish Mesoplodon 

 hidens for one of Ziijhiibs cavirostris. He assures me that the 

 National Museum at Dublin possesses no skeleton of Ziphius or 

 any part of one ; and that he has satisfied himself that no such 

 skeleton exists in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, 

 Dublin, or in that of Trinity College, Dublin. 



Although I am thus unable to ascertain what was the evidence 

 on Avhich Van Beneden's statement was made, I am in a position 

 to record the occurrence of two undoubted specimens of Z. cavi- 

 rostris on the Southern Coast of Ireland. The circumstances 

 under which these have been obtained by the Biitish M,useum 

 lead me to suspect that the species is not so uncommon a visitor 



k 



* Published bv permissiou of the Trustees of the British Museum. 



39* 



