The Annals of Scottish Natural History
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
RETURN TO LIBRARY OF MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY WOODS HOLE, MASS. LOANED BY AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY The Annals OF Scottish Natural History A QUARTERLY MAGAZINE WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED " Cfic fiaturalWt" EDITED BY J. A. HARVIE-BROWN, F.R.S.E., F.Z.S. MEMBER OF THE BRITISH ORNITHOLOGISTS' UNION JAMES W. H. TRAIL, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., F.L.S. PROFESSOR OF BOTANY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN AND WILLIAM EAGLE CLARKE, F.L.S., MEM. BRIT. ORN. UNION NATURAL HISTORY DEPARTMENT, MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND ART, EDINBURGH 1893 EDINBURGH DAVID DOUGLAS, CASTLE STREET LONDON: R. H. PORTER, 18 PRINCES ST., CAVENDISH SQUARE ' LIST OF PLATES I. An Unusually Coloured Raia clavata, Linnaeus. II. Pylaidla varia, Kjellman, and Ectocarpiis Landsburgii, Harvey. Claus. III. Canuella perplexa, sp. nov., and Longipedia coronata, IV. Scottish Desmidieae. Plate I. The Annals of Scottish Natural History NO. 5] 1893 [JANUARY. RISSO'S GRAMPUS (GRAMPUS GRISEUS} IN THE SOLWAY FIRTH. By ROBERT SERVICE. ON 28th of September last I read in our local newspaper, " the Dumfries Courier," a short paragraph to the effect that " on the 24th of that month a "young bottle-nose whale had been captured near Annan. Knowing that the dimensions given were very unlikely to apply to that species, I lost no time in writing for further information to my obliging friend, Mr. Wm. Wright, Annan, who in due course replied, giving the following particulars : The animal had been seen, when the tide ebbed, floundering in a pool on the sands of the Dumfriesshire Solway at a spot close to Battlehill, near Annan, by Mr. Wm. Blake, fisherman, who with assistance, and after a considerable struggle, killed it. Its dimensions 10 feet inches at thickest feet were, length 3 ; girth part 5 ; or 8 inches 1 6 or inches it had flippers 7 wide, 17 long ; two bumps right on the nose, one on each side with hollow between the were like one's fist and could be taken ; bumps " hold of. The shape from the dorsal to the tail went away to nothing."o Three teeth in each side of the front of lower jaw, and no teeth whatever in upper jaw. Colour of upper parts described as somewhat greenish in hue when alive and 5 B 2 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY after death the back was the colour of in the sea ; exactly " dark blue Welsh slates." Under parts white. The animal was a female. On making subsequent inquiry about the of white stripes usually present as a distinguishing character " Risso's Grampus, I was informed that it had little faint i gray streaky marks, inch in width, and some were long, and some were short," but as Mr. Wright had to prompt his informant on this point, I conclude these marks must have been inconspicuous. When requested by Mr. Wright, the lower jaws were very kindly presented to me by Mr. Blake. Before removing the mass of adherent flesh, I made a close examination of the dentition. Taking the left mandible, I found embedded in the flesh, at the point of the jaw in front of the three mandibular teeth, a couple of very small denticles, so soft as to be scarcely calcified, and quite easily cut through with the knife. They appeared on the surface as roughish points hardly to be seen, but easily felt with the teeth were at finger. Then behind the three mandibular These regular intervals two small openings into the gum. were about the diameter of an ordinary knitting wire. On shaving slices off the gum these openings were seen to widen out into tooth sacs of the calibre of an ordinary lead-pencil, and half an inch deep, and they were quite filled with a very whatever of calci- soft, white, pasty substance with no signs of fication, except in the walls of these sacs, which were tolerably hard cartilaginous matter, harder than the sur- rounding gums. The two front denticles had small, rough, shallow sockets in the bone, but the tooth sacs described had no visible sockets in the bone of the jaw, as was ascertained when the flesh was all removed. The right jaw had the couple of small denticles, the three mandibular teeth, and the two tooth sacs in the same order and position as on the left jaw. The mandibular teeth seemed remark- ably loose in their sockets, and with the finger and thumb could be moved quite easily in any direction, the great depth and width of the sockets when compared with the size of the teeth perhaps accounting for this. Each of them was inch above the when removed from exactly half an gums ; their sockets and cleaned, the front one on each side measured i-- inch in total length, the others were all alike RISSO'S GRAMPUS IN THE SOLWAY FIRTH 3 in measurement i^ inch. All of the six teeth had their summits bent inwards, had apparently been tolerably sharp at one time, but had become much worn and chipped. It may be worth pointing out that the dentition of this animal be described as or or as accord- might variously !} ^ ^ ^ ^ ing to the inclination of the observer. Not trusting my own identification of this Cetacean as Risso's Grampus, I forwarded the jaw, after it had been cleaned, to Mr. Eagle Clarke, who promptly informed me " that he had compared it with the perfect remains of Grampus griseus in the Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh, under Sir Wm. Turner's charge. The jaw belongs, undoubtedly, to a young specimen of that species." Before leaving this Annan specimen, it should be added that the oldest and most experienced of the Annan " fishermen declared that none of them had ever seen a " whale of the same kind in the Solway before. On Monday, I7th October, I was told that a "small " whale had been killed on the previous Saturday evening at Carsethorn, a little fishing hamlet about fourteen miles from Dumfries, but situated in the adjoining county, on the shores of the Stewartry Solway, a little to the westwards of the mouth of the Nith. Following on the recent occurrence of the rarity at Annan, my interest in Cetaceans was now thoroughly aroused, and within a few hours after the notice reached me I was at Carsethorn. I had no anticipation whatever that I was so soon to hear of another example of the same species, and it was therefore with the most pleasurable feelings that, after walking down the beach from our gig, the friend who accompanied me and I saw, when the old sail had been lifted off the animal we had come to see, that we had before us another veritable Risso's Grampus. This one had been caught at the mouth of the Kirkbean Pow, at a little distance above Carsethorn village. It had been seen stranded in the shallow water when the tide receded, and was captured by Mr. Robert M'Call, fisherman, with the assistance of the villagers. One man who was present described it as grunting very loudly, another said it barked like a mastiff dog, and snapped viciously at anything or anybody that came within its reach, 4 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY while a third individual said it squealed ! It had been stabbed in the throat and bled in the same way as pigs I the was are slaughtered, and when examined it, body in with the of the positively undamaged any way, exception cut under the throat. I made the following notes of its appearance on the spot : Dimensions. Total length, 8 feet. Girth in front of dorsal, 54 inches. betwixt snout and 2 inches. ., midway dorsal, 5 ,, ,, ,, dorsal and tail, 22 ,, before of ,, just expansion tail, 13 ,, Flipper. Length, i6| inches. Width, 5 16 Dorsal. Length, ,, Height, io| in inches. ,, Breadth middle, 7 Tail fins from tip to tip, 18 inches. Lower jaw from point to angle of mouth, gf inches. Upper 10 Sex. Female. brown round and black. General Colours. Eye, dark ; pupil colour of upper parts of a dark slaty tinge, greenish in certain lights, bluish in others. Colour of upper parts passing through the different shades from slate colour to grayish at the median line, and gradually vent to but passing to pure milky white from flippers, becoming darker on the under side betwixt the nippers. Flippers deep black. White on throat extending to gape, and then over the upper jaw, moustachial covering all the nose and forehead except a deep black over the of the patch of pretty regular outline, beginning upper part nose and extending downwards on each side. Round each eye was of outline off to at a large deep black patch irregular shading gray as a character the edges. The white lines usually assigned specific white line were altogether absent, with the exception of a silvery of the neck. It was about 8 inches lying obliquely across the back its half an inch in long and enclosed a deep black line along centre width. There was one group of seven black spots on left side mid- was the way between dorsal and belly. The largest of these spots size of a half-crown, the smallest the size of a threepenny piece, and if had been ink on the they looked precisely as some one throwing skin. There was a large number of scattered white spots the size of and a little to left side. Three white peas, just behind vent were situated above middle of left spots outlined in deep black just several white were also to be seen the upper lip ; spots along edge other or lines on of left under lip.