186 



MAMMALS. 



Another was stranded alive at Fraserburgh, just within our 

 area, in 1871. It measured 19 feet 3 inches in length (auct. Pro- 

 fessor Struthers' ^ References to Papers on Anatomy, Human and 

 Comparative,' by John Struthers, M.D., 1889, Journal of Anatomy 

 and Physiology, vol. for 1871). 



Mesoplodon bidens (Sowerby). Sowerby's Whale. 



* The first example of this species which commands the attention of 

 naturalists was an adult male, sixteen feet in length, which was 

 cast ashore in 1800 on the estate of James Brodie, Esq. of Brodie, 

 Elginshire, the skull of which, along with a drawing of the animal, 

 was forwarded by that gentleman to the late Mr. Sowerby, who 

 figured and described it, in 1804, in his British Miscellany, under 

 the name of Physeter bidens.' 



This — the type — is still preserved in the Museum of the Uni- 

 versity of Oxford. 



Family DELPHINID-ffi. 



Sub-family DELPHIN^. 

 Delphinapterus leucas {Pall.). White Whale. 



Dr. Gordon informed us that a Beluga was seen off Lossiemouth in 

 1883. One was caught at the Little Ferry, Sutherland, 9th June 

 1879, and is now in the Dunrobin Museum {auct. Dr. Joass, Dun- 

 robin ; vide Fauna of Sutherland and Caithness, p. 85). 



Globiocephalus melas {Traill). Pilot Whale. 



There is a specimen of this whale in the Dunrobin Museum, but 

 the species does not seem to visit these coasts in such numbers, 

 nor to be ever driven ashore, as so often happens in the Orkneys 

 and Shetland. 



Phocaena communis, -F. Cm Porpoise. 



Local Names. — Penak or Louper-dog, Pelak. 



Very abundant, more especially during summer and autumn, when 

 the herrings visit the coasts of the Moray Firth. 



