cuvier's aviiale. 561 



along the British Coasts ; and as the result of this action a 

 number of telegraphic intimations of such occurrences have been 

 sent to the Museum from time to time. The telegrams thus 

 despatched have in many cases been supplemented by written 

 Keports, sketches, or photographs ; and often by the transmission 

 of lower jaws or other parts of the specimens stranded. From 

 the information thus obtained two Repoi'ts have already been 

 published by the Trustees of the British Museum (Harmei-, 

 1914, 1915), For the assistance given to this enquiry by 

 Receivers of Wreck and Coastguard officers I wish to express 

 mv most cordial thanks ; and it is hardly necessary to add that 

 a similar expression of gratitude is also due to the Board of 

 Ti'ade, by whose action the collection of this information has 

 been rendered possible. 



In receiving these telegraphic Reports the possibility of adding 

 to our knowledge of the rarer Ziphioid Whales has throughout 

 been borne in mind ; and in particular it was hoped that oppor- 

 tunities would be afibrded of obtaining specimens of Ziphias 

 cavirostris. The inauguration of the scheme was more successful 

 than was suspected at the time ; since the very first specimen 

 received after it came into full working order, namely the Whale 

 recorded in my 1914 Report as 1913, No. 1 (Unionhall, Co. Cork), 

 ultimately proved to be a specimen of the wished for Ziphius. 

 This discovery was only made a few weeks ago, on removing the 

 skeleton from the sand-pit in which it had been cleaned * ; the 

 specimen having at first been determined, on the evidence of its 

 lower jaw, as a Hyperoodon. 



On July 19 of the present year a telegram was received from 

 the Coastguard officer at Fethard, Co. Wexford, annovincing the 

 stranding of a Whale, said to be 19 feet long and to have two 

 teeth at the extremity of the jaw. It was supposed that this 

 jvnimal would prove to be a Common Bottle-nosed Whale 

 {Hyperoodon rost7'atus) ; but the lower jaw was asked for in order 

 to render its determination certain. On the arrival of the jaw, 

 the pair of large and massive teeth at its anterior end showed 

 a,t once that the animal was not a Common Bottle-nosed Whale, 

 and it was more than suspected that it would prove to be a 

 Ziphius cavirostris. Mr. A . H. Bishop, one of the preparators 

 of the Museum, was accordingly sent to Fethard ; and he was 

 fortunately in time to secure the remainder of the skeleton, as 

 well as to make observations on its external character's and to 

 j)rove that it was a male. By a happy coincidence the skeleton 

 of the 1913 specimen already alluded to was at this time removed 

 from the sand ; and the characters of its skull proved beyond 

 doubt that, like the Fethard specimen, it was a Ziphius cavirostris. 

 The British Museum is thus in possession of two Irish skeletons 

 (the Unionhall specimen not quite complete) of this interesting 



* For tins method of cleaning skeletons, specially to be recommended for Cetacea, 

 since it enables very large specimens to be dealt with without trouble, and moreover 

 removes the oil from the bones, see E. F. Scharff', ' The Museums Journal,' x. 1911, 

 p. 196. 



