STRANDED AT LONGNIDDKY. 203 



posterior or internal border, and on the under surface ; white patches were also 

 seen on the upper surface near the tip, and here they were streaked with black 

 lines running in the long axis of the nipper. White patches also extended from 

 the root of the flipper to the adjacent parts of the sides of the animal. The 

 outside of the lower jaw was black, whilst the inside was streaked with grey 

 and brown. 



A few days after the death of the whale, the scarf skin had become loose, 

 and large portions of it had separated, leaving the pinkish-white cutis exposed, 

 and giving therefore a different colour to these parts of the integument than 

 they had originally possessed. This circumstance is worthy of note, and may 

 serve to explain appearances which have been described by some authors in 

 connection with the colour of the skin in specimens of fin whales which they 

 have examined. The surface of the skin was smooth and shining. No parasites 

 were found attached to it, and no hairs or bristles were observed to project 

 from any part of its surface. 



Although the animal had reached the enormous length of nearly 80 feet, 

 yet it had not attained its perfect adult state. For, as the subsequent exami- 

 nation of the skeleton showed, the disk-like epiphyses of the thoracic and 

 lumbar vertebrae were not yet united to the bodies of those bones. The whale, 

 therefore, was at the period of growth which, as Professor Flower has pointed 

 out,""" may very appropriately be termed " adolescent." 



Foetus and Membranes. — When the whale was lying on the beach at Long- 

 nidclry, the seaman in charge told me that he believed the animal to be in calf. 

 On the fourth day after the operation of flensing on the beach at Kirkcaldy had 

 commenced, as I was watching a man taking away the blubber and muscles from 

 the posterior part of the side of the abdominal wall, I observed an elongated, 

 dark-coloured mass lying loose amidst the coils of intestine, almost opposite 

 the umbilical scar. I requested the man to hand it to me, and at once re- 

 cognised it to be a wreath of young baleen about 4 feet long, which had 

 obviously become detached from the roof of the mouth of a young animal, 

 and had by some means or other escaped into the abdominal cavity of the 

 parent. The discovery of this baleen clearly proved that the whale was in the 

 gravid state. We at once commenced to remove a larger portion of the abdo- 

 minal wall in order to obtain a view of the uterus, but before this could be accom- 

 plished, the rising tide compelled us to cease our operations. As this happened 

 on a Saturday, work could not be resumed until the Monday following, and as 

 my University duties prevented me from being present, the search was conducted 

 by Messrs Coughtrey and Foulis, who after several hours of hard work ex- 

 posed the head of the calf by the removal of a mass of blubber from the right 



* Proc. Zoological Society, Nov. 8, 1864. 



