148 DESCRIPTION OF A NARWAL. 



There is a drawing given of the Boston Narwal^ 

 by Mr Sowerby, in his " British Miscellany," 

 tab. 9. Although La Cepede and Mr Sowerby 

 profess to delineate the same animal, their draw- 

 ings do not quite agree. In neither do the swim- ' 

 ming-paws and tail seem copies of nature. Mr 

 Sowerby, I may observe, as well as Dr Shaw, has 

 fallen into the mistake (if, indeed, it be a mis- 

 take) of considering it as the Monodon monoceros 

 of Linnaeus, or Common Narwal, whereas it is 

 apparently the small-headed kind. Only this last 

 species, therefore, can yet be ranked in the Bri- 

 tish Fauna. I must also remark, that he has 

 used a very strange liberty in his plate : he tells 

 us, that the Boston or Lincolnshire specimen, 

 " perfectly agreed (to use his own words) with 

 " the name given by Linnaeus, in having but one 

 " tooth looking like a horn ; but on examining 

 " the upper jaw, it was very evident that the 

 u other tooth had been lost ; and we have since 

 " (be adds) seen a perfect skeleton of the head 

 " of the animal, with the two teeth fixed in their 

 " proper sockets." Because he had thus seen 

 what he calls a perfect specimen, (which may 

 probably be the one formerly in the Leverian 

 Museum), he has thought himself warranted to 

 give a second tooth to the Boston narwal, and thus 

 to represent it in his plate. Such liberties can- 

 not be allowed in the construction of drawings of 

 objects in natural history. 



Bressay, Zetland,? 

 September 1809. 5 



