* 



HZ ACCOUNT OF A FIN-WHALE. 



London edition, indeed, of the Phalainologia, Mr 

 Pennant marks this as the Pike-headed whale. La 

 Cepede, however, considers Sir Robert Sibbald's 

 description as applicable to his Baleinoptera jubar- 

 tes, or'Balaena boops of Linnaeus; but without 

 any good reason that I can perceive, and he him- 

 self has not assigned any. In the jubarte, the 

 rostrum, far from being acutum, as in Sibbald's 

 whale, is, according to La Cepede, un pen arrondi. 

 And it would surely be wrong to take it for grant- 

 ed, that so sagacious an observer as Sibbald would 

 fail to take notice of any tuberosities occurring in 

 front of the blowholes, which form a striking 

 part of the specific character of the jubarte ; 

 especially as he is very particular in describing 

 the nares, as he chooses to call the blowholes. 



Sibbald's specimen came ashore a little to the 

 Westward of Burntisland, on the 17th November 

 1690 (O. S.). It measured forty-six feet long, 

 and was twenty feet in circumference where 

 thickest. 



I have seen a MS. account, by the late Dr 

 Walker, of a whale seemingly of the same spe- 

 cies, and precisely of equal size, which was forced 

 ashore very near to the same spot at Burntisland, 

 on the 10th of June 1761. Dr Walker named it 

 Balana sulcata, from the longitudinal folds on the 

 thorax ; but as two other species (for, till we be 

 better taught, we must consider them all as di- 

 stinct species) possess similar sulci, this specific 

 name is inadmissible. His description is pretty 



