THE BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. 
47 
treating of our Cetacea, it is observed, with reference to the two indi- 
viduals of this species recorded by Dale and Hunter, that ‘ these are the 
documents upon which alone we have to depend as to the occurrence of 
the Hyperoodon on the British shores.’ The works of Jenyns * * * § and Jar- 
dine f do not contain any reference to other British specimens. More 
recently Mr. Thompson of Hull has, in the Magazine of Natural History 
for 1838 (p. 221), described a whale of this species which was stranded 
near that town in 1837, and whose skeleton is preserved in the Hull Lite- 
rary and Philosophical Society. 
The first particular record known to me of the occurrence of the Hy- 
peroodon in Ireland is contained in the Dublin Philosophical J ournal for 
March, 1825, vol. i., where Dr. Jacob (now Professor of Anatomy and 
Physiology in the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland) very fully and 
ably describes a specimen dissected by him ; and at the same time, after a 
due examination of its anatomy, treats of the place the genus should occupy 
among the Cetacea. J The individual which formed the subject of the 
essay “ was stranded at Killiney, a few miles from Dublin, in the month of 
September [1824?].” Its perfect skeleton is preserved in the Museum of 
the College of Surgeons in Dublin. In Mr. Templeton’s Catalogue of 
Irish Vertebrate Animals, $ the Hyperoodon is mentioned as occasionally 
met with. 
From Dr. Jacob I learned in November last [1839] that within twenty- 
five years he has known four bottle-nosed whales to be stranded within a 
short distance of Dublin — of these all, except the one particularly de- 
scribed by him, were taken at Howth, near the entrance of the bay : on 
one occasion two of them occurred at the same time. [These were seen 
by Dr. Ball, and he thinks in 1829 or 1830. W. T.] 
Early in the month of August, 1836, two Hyperoodons were stranded 
at Dunany Point, near Dundalk. A friend, who saw the specimens when 
quite recent, described them to me as bottle-nosed whales, and on my 
sending to him, for the purpose of identification, outlines of the individuals 
figured by Dale and Hunter, he stated that the form of Dale’s figure re- 
presented them well. The larger of these animals was 17 feet in length 
and 14L in girth ; the other was somewhat smaller. Having been stranded 
on the property of his relative Lady Bellingham, their heads were for- 
tunately reserved for my friend Dr. Bellingham of Dublin. I had lately 
an opportunity of examining both of these specimens, one of which is in 
the Museum of the School of Anatomy, Peter Street ; the other in that of 
the Royal Dublin Society. In the latter collection is the head of a second 
Hyperoodon, which in all probability was one of those already alluded to 
as obtained at Howth, but I could not ascertain the locality whence it had 
been received : it is similar in size to the smaller of the Dundalk speci- 
mens, and a very few inches less than the larger, the measurements of which 
are as follow : 
* Manual of British Vertebrate Animals, 1835. 
fi Naturalist’s Library, vol. on Whales, 1837. 
+ The name Hyperoodon is objected to by Dr. Jacob as expressing what the 
animal does not possess — teeth in the palate, this part having been as smooth as 
the rest of the month in the specimen he dissected. Ceto-diodon was proposed 
by Dr. Jacob as a generic name, and Hunteri was applied by him to the species. 
This elaborate memoir, though published in 1825, is unnoticed in any of the above- 
cited works. 
§ Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. i., New Series. 
