BOTTLE-NOSED WHALE. 
53 
Scotland. From the gentleman just named and Dr. Melville, his most 
able assistant in the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, &c., in Edinburgh 
University, I have learned that this whale, killed in the Firth of Forth on 
the 29th of October, 4 measured 28^ feet in a line from the tip of the snout 
to the middle of the caudal fin, not following the curvature, but as if a 
plumb-line were dropped from one point to the other. It was a female, 
and was accompanied by a young female (nine feet long measured in the 
same way) which was still sucking: the mammae of the mother were 
distended with milk, which appeared very rich in butter, and tasted pleas- 
antly.’ Dr. Melville adds, that he 4 forgot to ascertain the point at which 
the triangular process of skin under the throat commenced posteriorly, but 
anteriorly it reached to the middle of the lower jaw ; the large teeth were 
not visible, being hid under the gum in both.’ We have another instance 
of a mother and her young being taken, in those described by Baussard as 
stranded at Honfleur. I am not aware of the occurrence of any of these 
whales upon our coast in the autumn or winter just passed, excepting the 
three noticed in this communication.” 
In connexion with the foregoing notes as to the food of the Hyperoodon 
and other whales it should be stated, that the stomach of the adult ani- 
mal killed in the Firth of Forth (October, 1845) contained a vast number 
of the beaks of cuttle-fishes, perhaps what would fill two quarts. I saw 
these in the University, and specimens were subsequently sent to me. 
Mr. F. D. Bennet, in his Narrative of a Whaling Voyage round the 
Globe, observed respecting the spermaceti whale that “ their ordinary 
food is the cuttle-fish or 4 squid’ (Sepia), many kinds of which are re- 
jected from the stomach of the whale when the latter is attacked by the 
boats, as well as after death and during the process of removing the blub- 
ber.” Yol. ii. p. 175. 
The same author says at p. 236 of the Delpliinus Perona, a sp. attaining 
six feet in length, and seen by him only in the higher south latitudes, that 
in every individual he examined 44 the stomach was distended by a vast 
number of calmars or flying squid (. Loligo ).” 
Since the publication of my note respecting the Hyperoodon taken in 
Belfast Bay (October, 1845), 1 have learned that two of them appeared to- 
gether at Cultra. They were seen going up the bay past Holywood in 
company but not close together, the one being to one side of and a little 
way behind the other. On returning back towards the mouth of the Bay, 
the one which was taken grounded itself, and the other got off. — They 
returned outwards in the manner described. The in-shore one met with 
its death — it made a great attempt in resistance, until overpowered. 
March 9, 1846. — I took the following measurement of the Hyperoodon 
belonging to the Belfast Museum and described by me in Ann. Nat. Hist, 
for March, 1846 : — 
ft. in . 
Length of cranium from occiput to end of snout .4 0£ * 
Breadth 2 1^ 
Height 1 11^ 
Distance between bony crests of superior maxillaries 0 5 
These bony crests, five inches apart at nearest point of contact, are very 
thick : they gradually thicken from the summit downwards — from about f 
one inch above to four inches and a half at thickest part. 
* This is not positive, a little being broken off the extremity : I made allow- 
ance for this in the above. 
f I say about, as the bone slopes away on either side* 
