Delphikid^e. MAMMALIA. IIelphinid.®. 203 
Lacepede, the French naturalist afterwards carelessly 
stated in his Avell-known work that the specimen was 
captured at Boston in America ; and Mr. Shaw in his 
“ British Miscellany,” actually represented this cele- 
brated Lincolnshire specimen, with two fully developed 
teeth ! Strange errors ! 
THE NOETHEKN BELUGA {Beluga Catodon) or 
White whale, derives its name from the uniformly 
white colour of the skin. It is an inhabitant of the 
northern seas generally, being especially numerous off 
the coast of Greenland, in Hudson’s Bay and Davis 
Strait. The Northern Beluga forms a very striking 
object, and is remarkable for its elegant symmetry and 
activity. According to Scoresby it is not at all shy, 
but often follows ships, herding in numbers to the 
extent of forty or fifty individuals, which are seen 
gracefully tumbling above and below the ocean’s sur- 
face. Two examples have been captured off the 
British coast. One of these was seen in the Medway 
as recently as 1846, and it was subsequently shot near 
Upnor castle. It measured rather more than thirteen 
feet in length. The other was killed in the Frith of 
Forth, near Stirling, on the 6th June 1815. A full 
account of tins specimen (fig. 80) is given by Dr. Bar- 
clay and Mr. Neil in the third volume of the Wernerian 
Society’s Transactions, and the skin may be seen, beau- 
tifully preserved, in the Natural History Museum of the 
Edinburgh University. On the authority of klr. Bald 
of Alloa, Mr. Neill informs us, “ that the animal gene- 
rally passed upwards when the tide was flowing, and 
returned down the frith with the ebb ; this sometimes 
happened every day, and sometimes once in two or 
three days; it came frequently to the surface, and was 
well knowm for about three months by the name of the 
white whale. It was supposed to run up the river in 
pursuit of salmon, and it was at last killed by the sal- 
mon-fishers, near the Abbey of Cambuskenneth. The 
animal had been attacked both with fire-arms and 
spears,” and Dr. Barclay found one of the musket balls 
in the lungs. It was a male specimen, and measured 
thirteen feet four inches in length. The flesh of the 
Beluga is considered good eating by the Greenlanders, 
whilst the oil is still more highly extolled. Neither the 
male nor the female exhibit any dorsal fin. The dam 
usually produces two young at a birth, the suckers 
having at first a bluish-grey colour. The example shot 
in the Medway was furnished with thirty-six teeth; 
twenty in the upper, and sixteen in the lower jaw; but 
it would seem that the teeth of the upper jaw are deci- 
duous in old individuals. In the Edinburgh specimen 
there were thirty teeth, eighteen above and twelve 
below. 
THE COMMON POEPOISE {Phoccena communis) or 
PORPESSE, is well known to the inhabitants of the 
shores of our sea-girt islands. It is the most abundant 
of all the Cetacea which visit our coasts. The hide 
exhibits a uniformly deep -black colour, except along the 
central line of the belly where it is whitish. A full- 
grown Porpoise varies in length from five to eight feet. 
In dissecting several examples, we have been particu- 
larly struck with the immense length t,f the intestin-cs, 
and in one example, shot in the Frith of Forth, we found, 
five intestinal cestode worms, four of which measured 
about ten feet each in length, besides others, parasites 
in the lungs snd liver. These entozoa are described in 
the 22nd volume of the Linnsean Society’s Transac- 
tions. Porpoises frequently travel some distance up 
our rivers, and it is very interesting to watch their 
playftd antics as they tumble to and fro on the light fan- 
tastic wave. They visit the Thames nearly every year, 
and sometimes venture as far as London bridge. Mr. 
Bell records an interesting note of their appearance 
many years ago in the river Wareham, in Dorsetshire. 
On one occasion, at the close of the year, two that wei'e 
taken in this river yielded sixteen gallons of oil. “One 
of them was found to have milk, which some gentle- 
men tasted, and pronounced to be salt and fishy. About 
the same season, three years afterwards, three others 
were driven up the river to the town of Wareham; 
they were full-grown animals, all about the same size. 
A fence was put across the river above and below 
them, in order to retain them for exhibition ; but they 
plunged so violently, and their cries — which they con- 
tinued during the night as well as the day — were so 
The Northern Beluga (Beluga Catodon) 
