BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. 53 



Scotland. From the gentleman just named and Dr. Melville, his most 

 able assistant in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, &c., in Edinburgh 

 University, I have learned that this whale, killed in the Firth of Forth on 

 the 29th of October, ' measured 28^ feet in a line from the tip of the snout 

 to the middle of the caudal fin, not following the curvature, but as if a 

 plumb-line were dropped from one point to the other. It was a female, 

 and was accompanied by a young female (nine feet long measured in the 

 same way) Avhich Avas still sucking: the mammie of the mother were 

 distended with milk, which a2)peared very rich in butter, and tasted pleas- 

 antly.' Dr. Melville adds, that he 'forgot to ascertain the point at which 

 the triangular process of skin under the throat commenced posteriorly, but 

 anteriorly it reached to the middle of the lower jaw ; the large teeth were 

 not visible, being hid under the gum in both.' We have another instance 

 of a mother and her young being taken, in those described by Baussard as 

 stranded at Honfleur. I am not aware of the occurrence of any of these 

 whales upon our coast in the autumn or winter just passed, excepting the 

 three noticed in this communication." 



In connexion with the foregoing notes as to the food of the Hyperoodon 

 and other whales it should be stated, that the stomach of the adult ani- 

 mal killed in the Firth of Forth (October, 1845) contained a vast number 

 of the beaks of cuttle-fishes, perhaps what would fill two quarts. I saw 

 these in the University, and specimens were subsequently sent to me. 



Mr. F. D. Bennet, in his Narrative of a Whaling \ oyage round the 

 Globe, observed respecting the spermaceti whale that " theii' ordinary 

 food is the cuttle-fish or ' squid' {Sepia), many kinds of which are re- 

 jected from the stomach of the whale when the latter is attacked by the 

 boats, as well as after death and during the i)rocess of removing the blub- 

 ber." Vok ii. p. 175. 



The same author says at p. 236 of the DelpJn'mis Perona, a sp. attaining 

 six feet in length, and seen by him only in the higher south latitudes, that 

 in every individual he examined " the stomach was distended by a vast 

 number of calmars or fiying squid [Lolicjo)." 



Since the publication of my note respecting the Hyperoodon taken in 

 Belfast Bay (October, 1845), I have learned that two of them appeared to- 

 gether at Cultra. They were seen going up the bay past liolywood in 

 company but not close together, the one being to one side of and a little 

 way behind the other. On returning back towards the mouth of the Bay, 

 the one which was taken grovmded itself, and the other got ofi". — They 

 returned outwards in the manner described. The in-shore one met with 

 its death — it made a great attempt in resistance, until overpowered. 



March 9, 1846. — I took the following measurement of the JLjperoudon 

 belonging to the Belfast Museum and described by me in Ann. Nat. Hist, 

 for March, 1846 :— 



ft. in. 

 Length of cranium from occiput to end of snout 



Breadth 



Height ......... 



Distance between bony crests of superior maxillaries 



These bony crests, five inches apart at nearest point of contact, are ver^ 

 thick : they gradually thicken from the summit downwards — from about f 

 one inch above to four inches and a half at thickest part. 



* This is not positive, a Utile being broken off the extremity : 1 made allow- 

 ance lor this in the above. 



t 1 say about, as the bone slopes away on either side. 



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