J 4° 



/ arious Short Xofes. 



stranded near Abercorn in t he year 1692, and described by 

 Sibbald himself, although the specific determination is not 

 absolutely tree from doubt. A Whale found floating" dead in the 

 North Sea in 1827, which was towed into Ostend, is likewise 

 referred by Sir William Turner to the present species ; and 

 another example, of which the skeleton is preserved in the 

 Museum at Edinburgh, was found dead near North Berwick in 

 the autumn of 1831. More important than all* is a young" speci- 

 men taken in the river H umber in the year 1847 [should be 1835] 

 the skeleton of which is preserved in the Museum of the Literary 

 and Philosophical Society of Hull, since it was on the evidence 

 of this specimen that Gray gave the name by which the present 

 species is known. Hence the type-specimen of the largest of all 

 living animals is of British origin. ... A Whale, doubtless 

 belonging to this species, and said to measure 90 feet in length, 

 was found dead off the north coast of Coll, in the Hebrides, in 

 June 1887.' 



From the foregoing notes and extracts it will be seen that 

 the skeleton which is now in the possession of the Hull Corpora- 

 tion is one of altogether exceptional interest and value. The 

 changes in the name since it was first described are many. It 

 was first Physalus (Rorqualus) sibbaldii Gray, then Physalus 

 fatirostris Flower, Cuvierius lalirostris Gray, Balcenoptera 

 sibbaldii Bell, Southwell, Flower, and Lydekker, and finally 

 Balccnoptera sibbaldi (Sibbald's Rorqual), by Lydekker. 



*The italics are mine. 

 ^ ♦ » 



SOTE on COLE OPT ERA . 

 Dorcus parallelopipedus near Louth, Lines.— On Monday, 8th 

 July, at a meeting- of the Louth Antiquarian and Naturalists' Society 

 Mr. J. A. Williams exhibited a specimen of the Small Stag-beetle (Dorcus 

 parallelopipedus) which he found at North Ormsby on 4th July. It has only 

 been recorded once before for Louth district.— C. S. Carter, 172, Eastgate, 

 Louth, Lines., nth Julv 1901. 



— • — 



NOTE on BIRDS, MOLLUSKS, and CRUSTACEA. 

 Lincolnshire Gizzard Records.— On the 30th April 1901, a party of 

 conchologists returning from Towland Lane Woods picked up an adult 

 Starling [Sternus vulgaris L.) at the cross roads by Mr. F. M. Burton's 

 house, at Gainsborough. The bird was hardly cold, but the cause of death 

 was not apparent. The gizzard contained a number of the common Pill 

 Wood lice (Armadillidum vtdgare L.), with fragments of beetle wing cases 

 and parts of other insects too far gone to be identified. Helix hispida 

 sufficiently perfect to be named by Mr. J. W. Taylor, F.L.S., who was 

 present ; and fragments of variously-coloured and banded Helix nemoralis , 

 which looked as if they acted the part of stones for this bird. The true 

 gizzard stones were few, but singularly large and rough for so small a 

 species.— E. Adrian Woodruffe-Peacock, Cadney, Brigg; 2nd May 1901. 



Naturalist, 



