Royal 
Fith, 
Size. 
Defcr. 
40 PIKE-HEADED WHALE. Clafs IV. 
In old times the whale feems never to have been 
taken on our coaits, but when it was accidentally 
flung afhore: it was then deemed a royal fifh*, 
and the king and queen divided the fpoil; the king 
afferting his right to the head, her majefty to the 
tail **. 
Hi... The PIKE-HEA DED Wala ie 
Balena tripinnis nares habens La Baleine a mufeau pointu, 
cum roftro acuto, et plicis in Briffon Cet. 224. 
ventre. Sib.Phalain29,1ab.1. Balexna fiftula duplici in roftro, 
Idem. Raii fyn. pife. 16. dorfo extremo protuberantia 
Pike-headed whale. Dale Har- cornuiformi. Arted. /yn. 107. 
wich, 410. No. 3. Balena Boops. Lin. /y/t. 106. 
HE length of that taken on the coaft of 
Scotland, as remarked by Sir Robert Sibbald, 
was forty-fix feet, and its greateft circumference 
twenty. 
The head of an oblong form, floping down, and 
growing narrower to the nofe; fix feet eight inches 
from the end of which were two fpout-holes, fepa- 
rated by a thin divifion: the eyes {mall. 
The pectoral fins five feet long, and one and an 
half broad; on the back about eight feet and an 
half from the tail, in lieu of a back fin, wasa hard 
horny protuberance : the tail was nine feet and an 
half broad. 
The belly was uneven, and formed into folds run- 
ning lenethways. 
* Trem habet waretum maris per totum regnum Ballenas et 
Sturgiones captos, &c. Edavardi I. anno 17mo. 
*® Blackjion’s Com I. cs 4. 
The 
