1891-92.] Prof. Sir Win. Turner on the Lesser Rorqual. 39 
believed to be a male, was stranded amongst the rocks opposite the 
Old Harbour, Dunbar. I secured the skull, the sternum, the hyoid 
apparatus, the cervical and some other vertebrae, and a first rib, for 
the Museum, together with some of the baleen plates. The skeleton 
was fully ossified, for the epiphysial plates were fused with the 
vertebral bodies. The skull is one of the largest examples of this 
species in any museum ; and when Professor van Beneden saw it some 
years ago, he thought at first, from its magnitude, that it was B. 
museulus, but when I showed him the baleen plates, he agreed with 
me that it was B. rostrata.^ The largest plates in my possession 
are 8| inches long and 3 inches wide at the base ; they have the 
distinctive yellowish-white colour. In April 1872, a young female, 
15| feet long, was captured in the salmon-nets near Anstruther. 
It was towed into the harbour, and was obtained by the late Dr 
Woodcock, who presented me with a few blades of the yellowish- 
white baleen, which are inches long by IJ in width at the base. 
The skull is now in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh. 
In July 1879, a young male, 18 feet long, was stranded at Elie, and 
the skull and some other bones were acquired for the University 
Museum. In October 1888 a very young specimen, the sex of 
which was not ascertained, was stranded at Alloa, and the skull, 
with some of the cervical vertebrae, was purchased for the Museum. 
Each half of the baleen wreath is 2 feet inches long, the largest 
plates are 5| by inches, and the colour is yellowish-white ; 274 
rows of plates were counted in one half, and 270 in the other. 
Granton Specimen . — In January 1888 a female B. rostrata was 
seen floundering in the shallows at the entrance to the disused stone 
quarry at Granton. A boat was launched, ropes were attached to the 
animal, and after a severe struggle it was hauled ashore. I visited 
it, as it lay on the beach, along with Mr John Murray, LL.D., a few 
hours after its capture. Through the courtesy of Mr John Howkins, 
C.E., a steam tug was obtained, and the whale was towed to 
Granton Harbour, put on a railway truck, and conveyed to the 
Marine Station, where it remained on exhibition for some time. I 
had an opportunity, therefore, of examining the external characters 
of a full-grown and perfectly fresh specimen of Balsenoptera 
* Van Beneden briefly refers to this specimen as “ une tete de grande 
taille,” in his Histoire Naturelle des BaUnopUres, p. 42, Brussels, 1887. 
