100 ON A FIGHT BETWEEN A WHALE AND A SworDrFIsH. [ Feb. 2, 
The St. Kilda or Hebridean and the South-African varieties 
are the better known, but there are also an Indian variety, of 
which several specimens are living in the Society’s Gardens, 
having some slight variations, and a local breed of the well-known 
Highland ‘“ Black face,” which also bear four horns. The 
St. Kilda is entirely black, the fleece being dark brown; the 
South-African form is piebald on the face and legs, with black 
irregular marks on the fleece; the Indian has spotted face and 
legs and white or grey fleece; and the Scotch variety has charac- 
teristic face-markings and long-stapled wool. 
“Although at first there seems to be a somewhat perplexing 
irregularity i in the form and pitch, as it were, of the horns of 
these Sheep, there can, I think, be seen a fairly constant type 
which separates the horns of the St. Kilda Sheep from those of 
other varieties. Upon looking over a considerable series, it is 
apparent that there are two distinct types—one in which the 
median horns are directed well forward ina semicircular curve, as 
in A, text-figure 6 (p. 99), and the other, B, in which the median 
horns take a much smaller curve over the face. I have not noticed 
an intermediate stage in this breed. The lateral horns spring at 
almost right angles from the skull, and grow at times so close 
inwards that the points would penetrate the skull if notcut. The 
median horns of the South-African variety are usually erect, 
or, if curved, take a backward inclination, rarely directly ‘forwar d 
as in the St. Kilda form. ‘The lateral horns are also of wider 
curve, and so grow clear of the head. The Highland variety 
follows very closely the Hebridean form, as shown in C. 
“Tn the same flock of St. Kilda Sheep some variety may occur 
in the number of the horns, as indicated by D, which come from 
the same source as A.. This is apparently due, not to any arrest 
in the growth of the bony horn-bearers, but to their fusion under 
a single horn-sheath, as indicated by the specimen. These super 
numerary horns are not due to an antero-posterior cleavage, 7. € 
from apex to base, but to segmentation of the centres of ossifica- 
tion of the frontal bone, as indicated by the skull of a Lamb, H, 
at six weeks old.” 
Mr. Malcolm Maclaren, through Mr. C. Davies Sherborn, 
F.ZS., called the attention of the Fellows to an account of a fight 
between a Whale and a Swordfish observed by the crew of the 
fishing-boat ‘ Daisy’ in the Hauraki Gulf, between Ponui Island 
and Coromandel, as reported in the ‘ Auckland Weekly News,’ 
19th Nov., 1908. A cow whale and her calf were attacked by a 
12 ft. 6 in. swordfish, the object of the fish being the calf. The 
whale plunged about and struck in all directions with her flukes. 
Occasionally the fins of the swordfish were seen as he rose from 
a dive, his object apparently being to strike from below. For 
over a quarter of an hour the whale circled round her calf, 
lashing furiously and churning up the water so that the assailant 
was unable to secure a good opportunity for a thrust. At last, 
