314 JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
RISSO’S GRAMPUS. 
(Grampus Griseus.) 
BY F. H. BALKWILL, 
Tue latter part of last year, and the commencement of the present, 
have been marked in the neighbourhood of Plymouth by the 
occurrence of Cetaceans, of which I have obtained the following 
particulars : 
About the end of October, 1885, the bodies of two whales were 
found floating in the Channel, and were towed into Plymouth 
Sound, and exhibited for some time under the Hoe. They were 
a pair. The female was found near Dartmouth, the male south 
of the Eddystone. As the male was found to have had its back- 
bone dislocated by violence, it seems probable that they may have 
come into collision with some vessel whilst consorting together. 
They were black above and white below, with the longitudinal 
plaits in the skin under the jaws and belly, distinctive of 
Rorquals. The following dimensions were taken with twine 
following the curves: 
DIMENSIONS OF RORQUALS. 
Male. Female. 
ft. in. ft. in. 
Length from tip of snout to centre of tail. 60 2 ... 63 0 
Length of mouth . ; : ,. 13* § ee ltomes 
Length of flipper . : . Me hie Pert iis. 
From muzzle to insertion of flipper . «D1 1) fee 
Width of caudal fin . : » Sd cD! gel aeO 
The female had collapsed, and was in such a flaccid condition 
that some difficulty was found in taking her length; and as that 
of her mouth was the same, and that of her flipper slightly less 
than in the male, doubt was felt as to the accuracy of measure- 
ment. But the length to insertion of flipper and the width of 
caudal fin being both greater than in the male, fairly establish her 
larger size. The balena of the male was of a grey-slate colour, 
tinted with pink, which, with the comparatively short length of 
the flippers, determines the species to be the Common Rorqual 
(Balenoptera musculus). 
