46 CETACEA. 



Although the term " bottle-nosed " is applied to the species in the last 

 two paragraphs, the circumstances of these whales visiting the coast in 

 the height of summer in large herds, and attaining the size described, 

 induce me to consider them the species under consideration rather than 

 either the bottle-nosed whale (IL/peroodon) or bottle-nosed dolphin 

 {iJeJph. I'ursio). Not more than two of the former are known to have ap- 

 peared together, at least in the British seas ; and the latter has come 

 singly and that very rarely, nor is it known to attain more than about 

 half the size of some of the individuals which were captured. Some of 

 the notices under Grcnnpus also more probably apply to D. melas. 



At a meeting of the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, 

 held on 29th October, 1851, Professor Dickie, of Queen's College, Belfast, 

 read a paper entitled " Notes of the Capture of Whales at Dunfanaghy 

 [County Donegal], in July, 1851," of which the following is an abstract : — 



" On the afternoon of July 20, 1851, a number of small whales were seen en- 

 tering the bay of Dunfanaghy. Boats were manned, and means employed to 

 drive them up the estuary. They were eventually stranded in a small bay, 

 about a quarter of a mile above the town, close by the bridge. The unfortunate 

 animals were there assailed by a large number of the people, armed with mus- 

 kets, axes, &c. They were soon slaughtered, and no fewer than sixty-nine car- 

 cases remained to reward the captors for the labour of the day. A week after 

 this occurrence the lecturer visited the scene of capture, but could find only a 

 few fragments of jaws, the carcases, after flensing, having been cut up, and either 

 buried or drifted out to sea. The largest individuals were described as having 

 been twenty to twenty-five feet in length ; there were both males and females, 

 the exact numbers of each could not be ascertained. The females were with 

 young, and the mammfe full of milk. Four of the sixty-nine were described as 

 much smaller than the others, of a different colour, and having long, slender 

 snouts, the jaws with numerous small teeth. Of these four he (Dr. Dickie) 

 was unable to procure any relics. There could be no doubt that the larger indi- 

 viduals were examples of Delp/iiniis inelas ; this opinion was confirmed on ex- 

 amination of a skull. The habits of the animals might alone have led to the 

 same conclusion. The four smaller individuals were, most likely, examples of 

 the common dolphin, there being no other British species to which they could 

 be referred ; their size, shape, colour, and form of the head, &c., appear to con- 

 firm this idea." 



The Ca'ing Whale is the species often taken in such numbers in the 

 northern Scottish Islands. Several interesting descriptions of it have 

 been published and are well known, so that I shall only refer to the last 

 which has become known to me. This appeared in the Edinburgh 

 Philosophical Journal for July, 1844, and was entitled a "Notice of the 

 employment of the flesh of small whales for feeding cattle in the Faroe 

 Islands. By W. C. Trevelyan, Esq." 



A gentleman who presented jaws and teeth of this species to the Bel- 

 fast Museum, in December, 1848, stated that in the autumn of that year 

 he had seen one of them, twenty-five feet in length, lying on the north- 

 eastern shore of Scotland, where, he said, these animals are of common 

 occtirrence in herds of from twenty to thirty, and that they were there 

 known by the name of " Driver Whales," from the circumstance that when 

 one of them is driven on shore the rest follow. 



The Bottle-nosed Whale, Hyperoodon Butzkopf, Lacep. 



The following notes upon this species were contributed by me to the 

 Annals of Natural History for February, 1840, vol. iv. page 37o. 



"In Bell's British Quadrupeds, <S:c., published in 1837, the latest work 



