139 



BAL^NOPTERA MXJSCULUS AT SKEGNESS. 



THOMAS SOUTHWKT.L, I'.Z.S., 



Author of the 'Seals and Whales of ihr llritish Seas'; etc. 



On Sunday, the 3rd April, at 6.30 a.m., a Whale was observed inside 

 the Skegness middle sand, in such a position that there was little 

 probability of its escaping out to sea ; baffled in all directions in its 

 attempts to regain the open waters, it made straight for the shore, 

 and came into violent contact with the pier-head, thereby seriously 

 injuring the side of its head and one of its flippers ; after this its 

 capture became comparatively easy, and it was driven ashore and 

 secured. Then followed the usual sickening scene of torture, and 

 it was not till some hours after that the wretched animal's life was 

 clumsily brought to a close. It cannot be too often repeated that a 

 well-directed shot or two in the region of the heart wull speedily 

 deprive even these giant creatures of life. 



On seeing the usual announcement in the papers of the stranding 

 of a 'Greenland Whale' I wrote to Mr. Storr, of Skegness, who was 

 chiefly instrumental in its capture, and he very kindly replied to my 

 questions to the best of his ability, but as from some of his remarks 

 and measurements I thought it possible the animal might prove to be 

 Rudolphi's Rorfjual {B. boreaHs), I availed myself of the first 

 opportunity of going over to Skegness in order to settle the (question, 

 and was not a little disappointed at seeing a young female of the 

 Common Rorqual {B, musculus). It lay on the sands just below 

 high-water mark and close to the town of Skegness, in a position very 

 unfavourable for close examination, and from the wash of the water 

 partly buried in the sand ; but its attenuated appearance, the length 

 of its exposed flipper, and the colour of its baleen at once indicated 

 its species. 



The only remarkable feature was the unusually light colour of the 

 baleen. The anterior third of the plates were very short and nearly 

 white, the second third showed an increasing amount of slate-colour 

 as the plates became longer, and the posterior third were of the normal 

 dark slate, viewed with darker and lighter streaks of the same on the 

 exterior, but the colour did not extend so far as usual towards the 

 interior margin. The whole of the fringe which clothes the inner 

 margin of the plates was very light in colour, in fact, nearly white^ 

 very little of the usual buff tinge being observable. Whether this 

 want of colour was a mark of juvenility, or to be accounted for by 

 individual variation, I cannot say, but as the animal was only 47 feet 



May 1887. 



