428 Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. 
Locality. 
Date. 
Authority. 
Hoxay, Orkney. 
Limekilns. . . . 
Cramond. . . . 
Monifieth. 
Ross-shire. . 
Cramond. . . . 
Hoy Sound, Orkney. 
Oban 
Thurso 
Loch Scavaig, Skye. 
Roeness Yoe, Shetland 
9th or 10th cent. ? George Petrie. 
February, 1689. . Sir R. Sibbald. 
1701. . . James Paterson. 
February, 1703. . Sir R. Sibbald. 
1756. . . Sir W. Jardine. 
1769. . . James Robertson. 
About 1800. . . George Low. 
May 1829. . . Sir William Turner. 
July 1863. . . J. E. Gray and Sir W. H. Flower. 
July 1871. . . Sir William Turner. 
August 1901. . Sir William Turner. 
It is well known that the sperm whale in its customary habitat 
moves about as a rule in herds or ‘ schools. 5 The specimens 
captured on the coasts of Scotland have, on the other hand, been 
solitary animals. The majority of these were males and of great 
size, a fact which supports the statement made by Mr Thomas 
Beale that the full grown males go singly in search of food. 
In connection with this record of the occurrence of the sperm 
whale in the Scottish seas, it will be of interest to note the cases in 
which specimens have been observed to the north of Scotland, or 
on the opposite coast of Scandinavia. Professor Gustav Guldberg 
of Christiania, in a recent publication, 1 has collected evidence of the 
capture of several examples of this whale in the North Sea. Thus, 
in 1770, one fifty-two feet long was stranded on the small island 
of Hjarno in Horsens Fjord ; bones of another specimen were 
found at an uncertain date on the island Lesso, in the Cattegat. 
Prof. Collett states that in 1780 one was obtained on the west 
coast of Norway, in Sond Fjord, and another in 1849 near the 
island of Smoelen, off Christiansund. Professor Sars mentions that 
in the summer of 1865 one was got as far north as the Lofoden 
Islands, within the Arctic Circle. The Bergen Museum obtained in 
1888 the tooth of a sperm whale found in the sand on the coast 
of Jaderens, in the south-west of Norway. 
Guldberg also records two specimens seen in 1895 ; one, an old 
solitary male, 19 metres long, was caught in the neighbourhood 
of the North-West Coast Islands, and its skeleton is now in the 
1 Nyt Magazin f. Naturvidenskab , B. 39, H. 4. I am indebted to Prof. 
Guldberg for a copy of this memoir. 
