28o LLOYDS NATURAL HISTORY. 



Mesoplodon sowerhiensis, Gervais, Zool. et Pal. Frang. p. 291 



(;i849); Bell, British Quadrupeds, 2nd ed. p. 431 (1874); 

 "Southwell, British Seals and Whales, p. 105 (1881). 

 Ziphius sowerhiensis. Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1864, p. 241 j id. 



Cat. Seals and Whales Brit. Mus. p. 350 (1866). 

 Mesoploden bidens, Flower, Cat Osteol. Mus. Roy. Coll. Sur- 



geon.s, pt. ii. p. 559 (1884), and List Cetacea Brit. Mu5. 



p. II (1885), 

 Characters. — Teeth relatively short, wide, and pointed, placed 

 nearly in the middle of the lower jaw ; general colour white 

 above, and black beneath, with vermicular white streaks on the 

 flanks. Length of adult from 15 to 18 feet. 



Distritntion. — Originally described from a specimen stranded in 

 1800 on the shores of Elginshire, this species, which enjoys 

 such a multiplicity of names (by no means the whole of which 

 are quoted above), probably has a wide distribution, although, 

 until the distinctive characters of the other members of the 

 genus are more accurately defined than is at present the case, 

 the exact limits of its range cannot be indicated. This Whale 

 is not only one of the rarest of British Cetaceans, but is likewise 

 equally scarce on the coasts of other countries, only seventeen 

 specimens, according to Sir William Turner, being known up 

 to the year 1888, since which date another British example has 

 been recorded, while a second, captured at Cape Breton, in 

 August, 18S8, brings up the total number to nineteen. 



Of the British examples the first is the above-mentioned 

 specimen stranded in 1800 at Brodie, Elginshire, th3 skeleton 

 of which is now in the Museum at Oxford. The second was a 

 male, taken in Brandon B.iy, Ireland, in 1864, the bones of 

 which are now in Dublin ; while the fourth, which was likewise 

 a male, was captured at the same place in 1870, and is also 

 preserved in Dublin. In 1872 a female, of which the remains 



