72 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



beetle-wing is nearly perfect, but the greater part of the mass is reduced to 

 small proportions, which appear to me to belong to the Diptera ; but of this 

 I do not feel in the least certain, and shall be glad to submit the material 

 to any one who would care to work it out and report. — William Jeffery 

 (Ratham, Chichester). 



C E T A C E A. 



Bottle-nosed Whale in Wexford and Wicklow. — In September last 

 I obtained at Feltard, on the Wexford coast, some bones of a whale, which 

 I am told was stranded there about three or four years ago. Prof. Flower 

 very kindly identified one of the bones, a vertebra, as belonging to a young 

 Bottle-nosed Whale, Hyperoodon rostratum. Through the kindness of 

 Mr. E. Williams, of 2, Dame Street, Dublin, I have obtained an account 

 of two whales taken off the Wicklow coast in 1888. Mr. H. B. Rathbone, 

 who bought them, writes as follows : — " The two Bottle-nosed Whales, 

 caught on August 25th, 1888 — a male, 19 ft., and a female, 18 ft. long, both 

 young. The male weighed 34 cwt, and yielded 10 cwt. of blubber, which 

 contained two-thirds oil, one-third skin and sinew. The oil weighed 

 145 gallons, and is the same specific gravity as sperm oil. There was also 

 a small yield of spermaceti of good quality, but small grain. The beak was 

 18 in. long, furnished with lamellae instead of teeth. The distance between 

 the extreme points of the fork of the tail was also 18 in., and the front 

 fluke 18 in. long and 8 in. broad." I am informed by Mr. A. G. More that 

 this species of whale is the commonest species on the Irish coast. — 

 G. E. H. Barrett- Hamilton (Kilmanock, New Ross, Co. Wexford). 



Sperm Whale in Mayo. — Mr. Richard Widdicombe, of the Blackrock 

 Lighthouse, Co. Mayo, has kindly sent me a tooth of a Sperm Whale, 

 Physeter macrocephalus. It is between seven and eight inches long, and 

 belonged to a whale, which, according to Mr. Widdicombe, was found dead 

 in June, 1889, near Innishkea Island, Mayo. This whale was " about 

 60 feet long, with a tail about 13 feet broad." It was towed out to sea by 

 order of the sanitary authorities. — G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton (Kilmanock, 

 New Ross, Co. Wexford). 



BIRDS. 



Tree Pipit in North Wales. — I can quite confirm what Mr. Haigh 

 says (p. 20) about the abundance of this species in North Wales. I have 

 found it in the spring most common in the wooded valleys of Carnarvon 

 and Merioneth quite down to the sea. A remarkable circumstance in con- 

 nection with the geographical distribution of the Tree Pipit is that not less 

 than seventy miles westward from the Welsh coast there is a land which, 

 so far as can be judged, seems as well adapted for its home as North 

 Wales. In the oak-clad glens of beautiful Wicklow it might certainly be 

 expected, yet it is absent from Ireland altogether, so far as I am aware, no 



