24S LILLJEBORG OX THE 



according to the same author, I'^th of the lengtli of body. Eschricht^ furnishes, partly from statements 

 by Mr. Haalland, the following nicasurcnicnts of a female, caught at Westmann(). Length of 

 body 18' S" (Danish). Distance between the hinder edge of the ca\idal fin, and the dorsal 

 fin 6' 4" ; length of mouth 1' 7" ; distance from eye to angle of mouth I' 2^" ; circumference 

 of body behind the pectoral fins 10' ; dorsal fin 1' and a few lines high, and 1' 3.'" long at 

 the base; pectoral fins 2' 1" long along the front edge; width of caudal fin between the points 

 5' 10". The dorsal fin is erect, convex along the fore edge, and concave at the hinder edge. 

 The colour appears to be variable. According to Eschricht, it is black, with a tinge of lead 

 colour, and somewhat lighter on the under side. 



In the skeleton the skull appears large in consequence of the large protuberances on the 

 npper jaw, and the high occipital crest. The skull of the female 36é' long, which, according to 

 Nilsson M'as stranded at Landskrona (Sweden), and the greater part of the skeleton of which is 

 preserved in the Zoological jMuseimi in Lund, is 5' 9i" long, and 2' 9r wide across the orbits. 

 Its height at the occipital crest is 2' 2j". The height from the protuberances of the superior 

 raaxillaries to the lower edge of the same bones 2'. The height of the protuberances on then- 

 inner side 1' 'if ; distance between them 8"; lower jaw 4' 9" long. The skull of a younger 

 skeleton 18' 7" long in the Zootomical Museum in Christiania was 4' 11" long and 2' 2^" wide, 

 and its height at the protuberances on the superior maxiUaries 8h". This skeleton had 9 

 dorsal, 10 lumbar, and 16 caudal vertebrae (1 or 2 of the last were missing.) The pro- 

 cessus articulares are very close to each other, and are very small on the high processus 

 spinosi of the lumbo-sacral and anterior caudal vertebræ. The sternum consisted of 3 bones, 

 and 5 pairs of the ribs were costæ veræ. I counted 9 dorsal, 11 lumbo-sacral and 17 

 caudal vertebræ, S of which had processus spinosi inferiores, on a larger skeleton in the Physio- 

 logical Museum in Copenhagen. Number of fingers .5 ; the thumb had 1 phalanx ; the fore- 

 finger 6 ; the middle finger 5 ; the fourth finger 2, and the little finger 1 phalanx. 



It has very seldom been found on the coasts of Sweden and Norway. A female was caught 

 at Fredrikshall, in Norway, on the 17th of November, 1749, according to Pontoppidan, and the 

 above-quoted inscription on the figure at Linne's, Hammarby ; a female of about the same size 

 as the above was stranded near Landskrona, in April, 1823, (see Nilsson's ' Skand. Fauna,' 1. c), 

 and there is a skeleton of a specimen, caught in Christiania Bay, preserved in the Zootomical 

 Museum in Christiania." It has also been obtained on the coasts of England and France, and, 

 at times, even recently, small herds of them have been stranded on the coast of the Little Belt in 

 Denmark. It appears oftener at the Faroe Islands, seldom at Iceland and Greenland, but not 

 so seldom off the north-eastern coasts of North America, and sometimes even further south on 

 the eastern coasts of that part of the world. Martens has observed it at Spitzbergen. It is 

 pelagic, and approaches the coasts very seldom. It is, according to Eschricht, very probable that 

 it spends the summer far north in the Polar Sea, and migrates to the North Sea, and the northern 

 parts of the Atlantic towards autumn or winter. It is social, and two or more individuals are 

 generally seen together. Its food consists principally of cephalopods, but it lives also upon fish, 

 holothuriæ, &c., &c. 



^ Undersogelser over Hvaldyrene, 4'''^ Afhandling, pp. 5 and 9. 



- [Dr. J. Koran has informed me by letter, that a specimen, 32' long, was killed in October, 1863, at 

 Laago, 5 miles from Bergen in Norway ; and a specimen, 16' long, was stranded, according to a letter 

 from Professor Esmark, at Fredriksvarn in Norway, in October, 1864. — 1865.] 



