446 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
edge was bent slightly back ; the posterior formed at the middle a 
rounded projecting angle. It was almost the same size as the previous 
Swedish specimen, also in the Goteborg Museum, but the head was a 
little longer, though not quite so broad, and the teeth were lower but 
longer (along the mandible) than in the earlier specimen. 
In September 1881, the Rev. George Gordon of Birnie, Elgin, 
wrote to me, that when on a visit recently to Hillswick, Shetland, 
he had seen the skull of a small cetacean, which he was led to think 
was a Sowerby’s whale, and that the skeleton was in the possession 
of Mr. J ohn Anderson of Hillswick. I accordingly wrote to Mr. 
Anderson to request him to present the skeleton to the Anatomical 
Museum of the University, and at the first opportunity he most 
courteously forwarded the bones to me, when the accuracy of Mr. 
Gordon’s diagnosis of the species was at once confirmed. I desire 
to express my thanks to Mr. Gordon for having so generously given 
me information of the specimen, and to Mr. Anderson for his liber- 
ality in presenting the skeleton to the Museum. 
This whale was captured in April 1881 by Mr. Thomas Anderson, 
who has kindly furnished me with the following particulars. He 
saw it struggling near the shore in the Urafirth Yoe, JNorthmavine, 
on the west coast of the main island of Shetland, and his attention 
was directed to it by hearing at short intervals a deep groan. A 
rifle was then fired at it, and the animal swam into a narrow creek, 
where it was harpooned. It was a male, 14 feet in length. The 
back was dark bluish-grey or slate-coloured, becoming lighter on the 
sides and whitish on the belly. Grey or whitish streaks and spots, 
often circular, were irregularly scattered over the sides. The skin 
was smooth, except on the belly, which was ribbed not unlike a 
stocking : this ribbed appearance began near the jaw and passed 
back beyond the flipper. A deep crevice was between the two 
halves of the lower jaw, which came to a point in front, but became 
wider and shallower behind. The beak was elongated and pointed. 
The mouth slit was straight in front of the teeth in the lower jaw, 
but behind the teeth it was curved with the convexity upwards and 
backwards. The blowhole was semicircular in shape, and with a 
flap which seemed to close it at will. The pectoral flipper seemed 
to be 1J or 2 feet long, but no measurement was made. A dorsal 
fin projected from about the middle of the back. The tail measured 
