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OW THE OCCURRENCE OF SOWERBY'S WHALE 

 (MESOPLODON BIDENS) ON THE YORKSHIRE 



COAST. 



By THOS. SOUTHWELL, F.Z.S., and W^L EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S. 



On the nth September last, Professor Turner communicated to the 

 British Association, then assembled at Aberdeen, a paper on the 

 anatomy of Sowerby's Whale, Mesoplodcii bidens Sowerby (J/, sower- 

 biensis Blainville), the material for which was mainly derived from 

 the dissection of an individual obtained on the 25th of the 

 preceding month of May, in Voxter Voe, on the north-east portion 

 of the main island of Shetland, which island had already become 

 noted as having yielded a previous specimen of this species, as well 

 as two other ziphoids. 



Seeing the interest which attaches to this rare Cetacean, we have 

 great pleasure in being able to record the occurrence of yet another 

 individual of the same species, the first we believe which has been 

 met with on the English coast ; but we regret to add that owing to 

 the ignorance of its captors as to the value of their prize, the carcase 

 was cast adrift and destroyed before the occurrence came to our 

 knowledge, and was thus irretrievably lost to science. This is the 

 more to be regretted from the fact that (mainly through the excellent 

 use which Professor Turner has made of recent opportunities), at 

 present more is known with regard to the skeleton and the anatomy 

 of the soft parts of Sowerby's Whale than of its external appearance, 

 added to which there are still several points in the anatomy which it 

 would be desirable to solve. 



On the nth September last, on the same day on which Professor 

 Turner made the communication to the British Association before 

 referred to, a Cetacean was left stranded in shallow water just inside 

 Spurn Head, at a spot known as the Chalk Bank. As the tide 

 receded the animal made great efforts to get off into deep water, and 

 lashed up the sand with its tail, till a large depression was formed in 

 which it lay. Observing the commotion, two men rowed up from 

 a sloop which was riding at anchor in the entrance to the Humber, 

 near to the spot, and despatched it with their oars. The animal was 

 seen alive by several persons, amongst them by I\Iiss Rose Smith, 

 daughter of the chief hght-keeper at the Spurn, and Air. T. Wmson, 

 coxswain of the lifeboat 'Spurn,' to whom jointly we are indebted for 

 the information we have been able to glean ; for under the 

 impression that it was a Common Bottlenose Whale {H. rostraius)^ 

 a person named Hopper 'chopped it up ' to obtain the oil, and the 

 remains, with the exception of the tail, were set afloat, and drifted 



Dec. 1885. s 



