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Pak ZO@OnOG lst
No. 837.—March. 1911.
A BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES
(ODONTOCETI).
By Prof. McInrosu, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., Gatty Marine
Laboratory, St. Andrews.
Amonest the larger denizens of the sea few are of greater
interest either to the naturalist or to the ordinary observer
than the Whales, or Cetaceans, as they are called; nor is this
due alone to their size and strength, but to their peculiar
habits, and in some cases to their intrinsic value. Moreover, in
this group are the most gigantic types of living animals (for
example, Sibbald’s Rorqual, the Whalebone Whale, and’ the
Spermaceti Whale), the former surpassing in bulk anything
known in former epochs of the world’s history.* The vast size
of some is a feature of moment, since amongst mammals it
often happens that the primeval forms exceeded in bulk those
now living. Thus the gigantic Mammoth (Hlephas primigenius)
from the frozen soil of the alluvial plains of Siberia, and the
siant Ground-Sloths (Megatherium and Mylodon) of the ancient
tropical forests of South America much exceeded in size the
living representatives of the respective groups. Unfortunately,
also, the same may now be said of the Sirenians, since Steller’s
Rhytina—discovered at Behring’s Island only in 1741—perished
utterly in 1782, or in little more than forty years. This huge
Sea-Cow, 25 ft. in length and weighing three or four tons,
browsed on the tangles in the shallows along the seashore, and
* Though some Zeuglodonts reached 70 ft. in length.
Zool. 4th ser. vol. XV., March, 1911. H
82 THE ZOOLOGIST.
collected in herds like cattle. Mild and inoffensive in dis-
position, the Rhytine soon fell before eager crews, who ruth-
lessly slaughtered them for their savoury flesh. The smaller
Dugongs and Manatees are the only Sirenians now living.
Besides mere bulk, however, the Cetaceans have enormous
strength and activity, making their pursuit occasionally both
difficult and dangerous. The comparatively large and much
convoluted brain, even in the smaller Cetaceans, shows that
intelligence is not less than is usually supposed; indeed,
those who have long come in contact with the living forms in
our own seas can sufficiently vouch for this. Again, the large
amount of oil obtained from the subcutaneous fat or ‘* blubber,”’
and the value of the whalebone of the Right Whale (a single
long blade of which may bring from £12 to £14), all combine
to render the group as valuable to the public as interesting to
the scientific inquirer.
Some of the Cetaceans, just as the Zeuglodonts and their
allies did in the Hocene, Miocene, and Pliocene, range over a
very wide area—species which are indistinguishable from each
other being found in the North Atlantic, as well as on the coast
of New Zealand and the neighbouring Pacific. Others have a
more restricted area, though in regard to distribution much yet
remains to be done even on our own shores, as the recently
established whaling stations show. Not a few species occur
on the British shores in the living condition, while others have
been beached either immediately after death or when the gases
of decomposition have floated the carcasses shorewards. A few
forms are confined solely to fresh water, viz. to the great rivers
of Asia and South America.
The Cetaceans, or Whales,* in which term the small as well
* It is unnecessary in this brief outline to refer to the extensive litera-
ture of the subject, but the writings of our countrymen, John Hunter,
Robert Knox, Sir R. Owen, Dr. Gray, Sir William Flower, Sir William
Turner, Dr. Murie, Dr. Carte, Prof. Macalister, Prof. Cleland, Prof. D. J.
Cunningham, Prof. Clark, Sir John Struthers, Mr. Lydekker, and Mr.
Beddard merit special mention; whilst abroad the labours of the elder
Prof. van Beneden, Prof. Sars, Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt, Prof.
Lilijeborg, Prof. Collett, MM. Pouchet and Beauregard, Mr. True, Mr. Beale,
Prof. Cope, Capt. Scammon, F. Cuvier, Prof. Gervais, M. Lacepéde, and Prof.
Nansen are equally important.
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 83
as the large forms are included as a group of mammals, are
readily distinguished by their wholly aquatic existence, the only
other mammals having a similar habit being the Sirenians, viz.
the Manatees and Dugongs, which, however, diverge consider-
ably in structure from the whales. So truly aquatic are the
Cetaceans that deposition on land is usually fatal, and therefore
they materially differ from such as the seals, which frequently
leave the water of their own accord and bask on the rocks and
sand. An exception, however, was the Californian Grey Whale
(Rhachionectes glaucus), which was often found amidst the surf.
This interesting species is said to be now exterminated by the
persistent pursuit of man. While thus they resemble the fishes
in being confined throughout their existence to the water, they
are as characteristically mammalian in structure as the most
typical member of that class, though it is true their framework
as well as their various organs are modified to suit their aquatic
life, and some parts are absent or rudimentary.
In the form of the body the Cetacean is fish-like, being
spindle-shaped or club-shaped in outline, without a definite
neck, though in one or two a trace exists, tapered more pos-
teriorly than anteriorly, and having a powerful tail composed
of two divisions or ‘‘flukes,’’ placed horizontally, and thus
differing from the vertical tail of all fishes and the gigantic
Ichthyosaurians. The body is covered with the mammalian
skin, the surface or cuticle being smooth, and with compara-
tively few hairs, so characteristic of other mammals. This
scarcity of hairs might at first sight be considered a most
exceptional feature, since one of the leading characters of
mammals is the presence of sucha covering. A closer scrutiny,
however, shows that hairs are by no means absent in the
whales. Thus, for instance, the newly born Right or Whale-
bone Whale has numerous bristles on the upper and lower lips*
and near the blow-holes. Moreover, Mr. Lilliet has recently
shown that in the adult examples of Balenoptera musculus and
B. sibbaldii a definite distribution of hairs could be made out in
the shape of four rows of straight, white, bristle-like hairs on
* Sixty-six near extremity of upper jaw; about fifty on each side of
lower lip; a few near blow-holes.
+ Proc. Zool. Soc. 1910, p. 778, with text-figs., May, 1910.
H 2
84 THE ZOOLOGIST.
the dorsal surface of the snout, and on the outer edge of each
ramus of the mandible from the tip to near the eye is another
row of hairs. Most of the Toothed Whales, such as the Pilot-
Whale, White-backed Dolphin, Porpoise, and Common Dolphin,*
in their embryonic condition, show similar hairs, but Delphin-
apterus and Monodon do not. In some again a series of pits
(forming a circlet) are also present in the upper jaw, passing
through the coloured or pigmented region of the horny layer of
the skin, but whether these represent hair-follicles is unknown.
The late Sir William Flower, one of the most distinguished
authorities on the whales in this country, as well as recent Con-
tinental observers, such as Kukenthal and others, consider that
the presence of such hairs indicates that probably the ancestors
of the modern whales were much more hirsute. Besides hairs,
two species of porpoise, namely, the common form and P. spini-
pinnis, from the western shores of South America, present spines
on the dorsal fin, the latter on the back as well as on the front
of the fin; whilst Neomeris, a porpoise from the Southern
Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Seas, has a series of dermal ossicles
in several rows along the dorsum throughout the greater part of
itslength. So far as observed in young porpoises at St. Andrews,
the spines or tubercles are much less developed than in the
adult, so that this species does not fall in with the notion of
‘inheritance from a more completely armoured ancestor.’’} The
figure of the dorsal fin of the Common Porpoise, as copied from
Kukenthal, differs materially in its posterior outline from any-
thing observed in Scotland.
In regard to the structure of the skin, a well-developed
corium (true skin, cutis vera) is absent in most Cetaceans which
have a thin horny layer, and the Malpighian layer is much
developed and has long papille. The glands of the skin are
generally absent, as are also the muscles, while the cutaneous
nerves are sparingly developed. The smoothness of the surface
of the whales is probably associated with their surroundings,
since a mammal with a smooth skin seems to be better adapted
for a purely aquatic life than a hairy one. The further struc-
ture of the skin will come under notice when dealing with the
* Prof. D. J. Cunningham.
+ Beddard (after Kiikenthal), vide ‘ A Book of Whales,’ pl. ii. fig. 6.
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 85
Toothed Whales, so that the only general features that call for
mention are the anterior limbs, which have the form of flattened
paddles—called flippers—in which the bones of the arm and
hand are covered with the dense integument without nails, the
absence of hind limbs and external ears.
Whales may very naturally be divided into two great groups,
viz. the Whalebone Whales and the Toothed Whales (Delphinide),
whilst the Physeterine Whales (called after the Spermaceti
Whale), and the Ziphoids, also Toothed Whales, have an inter-
mediate position. These Toothed Whales are less specialized
than the Whalebone Whales, for in the latter whalebone
appears to be a peculiar development of the gum in animals
which formerly had teeth. Thus in the very young or embry-
onic whale (e.g. a Finner), teeth appear and afterwards dis-
appear in the jaw long before the whalebone grows, indicating
that the toothed condition is the primary, the brush-like
arrangement of whalebone tne secondary, condition.
This group (Odontoceti), while presenting teeth in most
instances (though in some there are none), as in other mam-
mals, yet exhibits certain aberrant features: in the asymmetry
of the skull,* the single external nostril, which is situated far
back and with peculiar knob-like nasal bones, the absence or
rudimentary condition of an organ of smell, the attachment of
the periotic to the skull (the tympanic not being ankylosed to
the periotic), the flattened plate of the maxillary, lachrymal
inseparable, the complex stomach, absence of a cecum (except
in Platanista), the aberrant condition of the hand, which, how-
ever, is pentadactylous, the nearly straight condition of the
halves of the mandible, the presence of true capitular processes
on several of the anterior ribs for articulation with the bodies
of the vertebre, the division of the sternum into various pieces,
and the attachment to it of several pairs of ribs by carti-
laginous or ossified sternal ribs.
* Lillie has lately attempted to account for the asymmetry of the Odonto-
cete skull by the position of the pipe-like continuation of the larynx, which,
instead of being in the middle line as in the Mystacocetes, is placed close to
the left wall of the pharynx (Proc. Zool. Soc., May, 1910, p. 781, text-figs.
73 and 74). Yet there is no asymmetry in the hyoidean skeleton of any
Odontocete.
86 THE ZOOLOGIST.
In external form the Toothed Whales vary, from the massive
club-shape of the Spermaceti Whale, the head of which resembles
an enormous battering-ram, to the more elegant curves of the
active Dolphins. Some (as the Killer) have, and others (as the
White Whale and Neomeris) do not have, dorsal fins, and the
flippers are either short and broad, as in the Spermaceti and
Susu (Platanista), or elongated, as in the Pilot-Whale. They
vary in external coloration, from the deep black of the Pilot- Whale
to the yellowish white of the Beluga, and the bluish colour of
Orcella fluviatilis of the Irrawaddy, some being variegated with
black and white, as the Killer and several Dolphins, or speckled,
as in the Narwhal. Moreover, in such as Mesoplodon, a pair
of gular grooves are present.
In the structure of the skin they agree with the general
type already mentioned, viz.in having an epidermis of variable
thickness, the surface being formed of the corneous layer which
usually shows flattened cells, while the Malpighian layer beneath
presents polygonal nucleated cells with interstitial fibres, and
contains the pigment. Chemically, the skin shows keratin, and
in certain forms, as the White Whale, is manufactured into ex-
cellent leather, and there is no reason why the skins of others
should not be similarly utilized, especially when it is remem-
bered that the skin of the Spotted Wolf-fish is made into
excellent leather in Norway. In connection with the layers
just mentioned, it is an interesting fact that the young (year-
ling) White Whale is of a leaden or bluish black hue, from the
greater development of pigment at the inner border of the
Malpighian layer, but as it grows older it becomes mottled, and
finally assumes the soft cream-like tint or yellowish white of
the adult, and the nearly pure white of the old animals. This
perhaps indicates that the white is an acquired character. The
pigmented layer in the skin of the Cachalot is alkaline from free
soda, a great convenience to the whaler by enabling him to
cleanse the ship and his clothes from the oil with which the
alkali readily combines.
Beneath the Malpighian layer of the skin is a thin mem-
brane, e.g. in such as Beluga, which probably represents the
true skin (corium). Then come the connective tissue and fat,
varying from one to several inches, 4 to 8 to 14 in. in Cachalot,
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 87
and usually termed “‘ blubber,” the main cause of the relentless
persecution which these animals suffer at the hands of man.
This fatty tissue attains great depth—for instance, on the
snout of the Pilot-Whale, and in the same region of the
Cachalot, where the soft, yellow, and oily mass (‘‘ junk’’) based
on the upper jaw weighs between two and three tons. Besides
this, however, and resting on it, is a large area, to which the
term ‘‘case”’ is applied by the whalers, abutting on the nasal
canal, the whole of which is filled with an intricate web of
cellular tissue, containing in the interstices a clear oily fluid
(chiefly spermaceti). Twelve barrels, or about three hundred
and seventy gallons, of this material have been collected from
the ‘“‘case’’ of a single example. The great accumulation of
these relatively light substances in the huge head of this species
is, in the opinion of some observers, a provision for rendering
the region buoyant.*
The dorsal humps and dorsal fins seen in many of the
whales of this group (.¢. the Toothed Whales) have a large
quantity of the same fatty tissue or blubber. They are simple
integumentary folds with tough connective tissue and fat, as in
the hump of the camel (Dr. Murie). It is interesting that
these fins begin to develop in the young only after the forma-
tion of the flukes, showing perhaps that they have been acquired
more recently.
As might be anticipated in animals so powerful and so active
as the Cetaceans, the muscular system, which lies beneath the
former tissues, is highly developed. An examination of the
plates in the elaborate paper of an old friend, Dr. Murie,t
shows that several powerful sheets act on the flippers, while a
still more remarkable series of muscles give great power to the
flukes of the tail. The more complex arrangements of this
system need not be dwelt on, but a glance at these anatomical
figures shows that structure in this respect conforms to function,
and that the swift propulsion of the huge body through the
water, the balancing and sounding actions of the flippers, and
the sculling and balancing movements of the tail, so admirably
told by a late colleague, Prof. Pettigrew, and which in ordinary
* FB. D. Bennett, surgeon, ‘A Whaling Voyage round the Globe,’ 1840.
{ Trans. Zool. Soe. vol. viii. p. 238, pls. 36 and 37.
88 THE ZOOLOGIST.
progression cause the water behind the Killer, for instance, to
be violently churned as from the screw of a powerful steamer,
are all provided for in the smallest possible compass.
The posterior extremity of the body of the Cetacean is fur-
nished with the flukes, which consist of strong fibrous tissue
covered with skin—in some forms, symmetrically fimbriated—
and with which certain of the muscles just mentioned are con-
nected. The ‘‘blubber” again becomes very thin as it ap-
proaches the root of the tail, and finally is lost in the fibrous
substance of the organ. The strength of the muscles moving
the tail enables the animal to strike the water with great power
vertically and at any angle. The larger toothed forms—such
as the Sperm Whale—crush strong whale-boats into fragments
with a single blow, or occasionally send a harpooner through the
air to a distance, and the Californian Grey Whale was equally
dextrous with its tail. By its aid also these huge animals
spring clear of the water with all the agility of a Salmon, a
feature likewise very characteristic of the smaller forms, such
as Dolphins, groups of which now and then leap from the
slopes of the great waves in the North Sea, making a loud noise
as they again strike the water.
Two prominent views are held with regard to the homologies
of the caudal flukes. Thus Owen, Flower, Huxley, Claus, and
Parker suppose that the whole hind limb has been suppressed
or atrophied externally, and that the flukes, like the dorsal fin,
have been secondarily acquired. Ryder, again, thinks that the
flukes are probably degenerate homologues of hind feet; while
Gray and even earlier authors held that they represent the
whole hind limb. Ryder supports his view by pointing out
that the skeletal elements of the posterior limb have been
atrophied from without inward, and that only traces of the
femur and pelvic arch remain in certain forms. Further, that
the muscles of the tail are connected with the flukes, the blood-
vessels of which are arranged in a dorsal and in a plantar set
as in the foot; that there is a tendency in the nerves of the
lumbar plexus to be prolonged toward the tail to supply caudal
muscles ; that the direction of the crus, when developed, is in
the line of the flukes ; and, lastly, that the flukes are developed as
in other limbs. Ryder is supported by Prof. Gill, who also con-
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 89
siders that the flukes are developed from the greatly hyper-
trophied intecuments of the hind limbs, analogous to such as
are present, for instance, in the hind limbs of the eared Seals,
while the osseous elements have been inversely atrophied, pulled
forward and reduced to supports for muscles. With all respect
for this ingenious theory, the view of the anatomists first
mentioned seems most to accord with fact, as also are the
views of Mr. Beddard, who points out that Ichthyosaurus, as
shown by Prof. Ahlborn, had a heterocercal tail with the
vertebra along the lower border, and yet had hind limbs.
The anterior limbs form a pair of paddle-like organs or flippers
(comparable in some respects with those of the Ichthyosauria),
which consist of the shortened arm, fore-arm, and hand, en-
veloped in tough integument. These limbs are attached to a
shoulder-girdle formed of a flattened scapula with a forward pro-
cess, the coracoid, and above it the acronicon. In the Sperm-
Whale the flippers are short, broad, and truncated, in the Ziphoids
small and ovate, in the Susu broad and truncated,* and the
Same in certain Dolphins, such as the Narwhal and White
Whale (Delphinapterus), longer in the Porpoise, large and ovate
—nearly as broad as long—in the Killer, narrow and pointed in
Pseudorca, very long and narrow in the Pilot-White, of moderate
size, narrow, pointed, and somewhat flattened in the Dolphin.
These organs are used in balancing, and it may be in certain
instances in sounding, as in the Ca’ing Whale, and still more
in Megaptera, one of the Whalebone Whales, an example of
which the whalers endeavoured, after it was harpooned, to drive
on the beach at Scotscraig, near the mouth of the Tay, but it
sounded with its long white flippers, and turned to deep water.
As indicated in the remarks on the tail, no traces of pos-
terior limbs appear externally, but a rudimentary pelvic bone
(ischium, though Delage considers that it represents the ilium
and pubes as well) exists on each side for the attachment of
certain muscles, except in the Susu (Platanista), in which it is
absent.
The skeleton of the Toothed Whales presents certain dis-
tinctions when compared with that of the Whalebone Whales,
* See an important memoir on the manus of this form by Sir William
Turner (Proce. Roy. Soc. Edin. vol. xxx. p. 508, with text-figs., 1910).
90 THE ZOOLOGIST.
the most conspicuous differences existing in the skull, which is
asymmetrical in the toothed forms. Moreover, considerable diffe-
rences exist between the various Odontoceti themselyes—for in-
stance, between the skull of Hyperoodon, with its great maxillary
crests, and the flattened skulls of Monodon and Delphinapterus.
In the Ziphoid Whales and Platanista (Susu) there are great
maxillary crests. The skull in the Toothed Whales is often
broad and depressed, but the snout may be much elongated, as
in the Dolphins, the Ziphoids, and the Susu. The nasal bones
occur as ‘‘nodules or flattened plates applied closely to the
frontals ’’ (Flower), and not taking any share in the roof of the
nostril.* The lachrymal is either fused with the jugal, “ or,
when distinct, very large, and covering the greater part of the
orbital plate of the frontal” (Flower). The tympanic bone is
not fused with the periotic, which is only heid in position by
ligament. The parietals do not meet above, but the space
is occupied by the large supra-occipital. The pterygoids are
short, thin, involuted, and form with the palatine process the
outer wall of the posterior palatine air-sinus. In Physeteroids
these bones are only hollowed on the outer side. In Ziphius
the premaxillaries are expanded at the sides of the nares,
hollowed, and with elevated margins, while the right is more
developed than the left. These bones in the Toothed Whales
generally bear no teeth, and are characterized by their great
length ; moreover, they are ensheathed laterally by the maxille.
In the Ziphoids also there are distinct malar bones, and the
pterygoids are large and meet in the middle line. The meso-
ethmoid is densely ossified, and in Mesoplodon it coalesces with the
others.| The premaxillaries are convex in front of the nares in
the White Whale (Delphinapterus). The halves of the mandible
are almost straight, deep posteriorly, and they form a true
symphysis anteriorly. The symphysis is generally short, except
* Short nasals occur in the Saiga, and the spiracular sinuses of this form
and the Tapir are, according to Dr. Murie, homologous with those of the
Cetaceans (Trans. Zool. Soe. vol. vill. p. 242, &e., text-fig.).
+ Principal Sir William Turner’s able account of the skeleton of this
form may specially be referred to. He observes that ‘‘ the meso-ethmoid
septum was prolonged into the upper end of the medio-rostral gutter for
8 cm., and was embraced anteriorly by the medio- (meso-) rostral bone ”
(Proc. Roy. Soe. Edin. vol. xxix. p. 687, with text-figs., 1909).
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. of
in the Sperm-Whale, and in Mesoplodon the halves of the
mandible may not be fused at all.
The cervical vertebre are free in the Susu, White Whale, and
in Monodon also, or with irregular unions, the atlas and axis
being free; in Physeter the atlas alone is free, in Ziphius the
three anterior vertebre are united, the rest are free; in the
Porpoise the first to the sixth have coalesced, and sometimes the
seventh joins them. In Orca the bodies of the first and second
and sometimes the third are united; while in Globiocephalus
the anterior five or six are united. In Pseudorca the first to
sixth or seventh are united, and the bodies of the lumbar
vertebre are more elongated than in Orca.
One of the most interesting features in connection with the
whales is their method of respiration, and it has been more or
less carefully investigated in the group now under consideration.
Air-breathing animals entirely confined to the water, where
they find their food and, moreover, have in its depths freedom
from pursuit, must of necessity present special modifications
of the typical mammalian organs. LExternally, the Toothed
Whales have a single blow-hole or nostril, which is generally
transverse and crescentic, with the horns of the crescent point-
ing forward, though in the Susu it is longitudinal, linear, and
median, and in the Sperm-Whale longitudinal, f-shaped, and to
the left of the median line. The blow-hole closes by its own
elasticity, but opens by muscles. Except in the Sperm-Whale
the aperture is on the top of the head, far removed from the
usual position in mammals. The air is conveyed by the nasal
passages, which have sinuses or spaces, to the largyngeal appa-
ratus, the distal portion of which (arytenoid cartilages and
epiglottis) is remarkably elongated—forming, indeed, a tube
with an enlarged end—which is grasped by the muscles of the
soit palate, very much as in the young marsupial in the pouch.
Thus, when the blow-hole is closed and the larynx grasped, the
whales can swallow their food without the danger of admitting
water into the windpipe. They rise to the surface for air, pro-
jecting the blow-hole and blowing—that is, expiring the air from
the lungs and rapidly drawing in fresh air. The condensation
of the warm moist air from the lungs forms a column of vapour,
which shoots to a greater or less height in the air. In the case
ww
92 THE ZO0O0OLOGIST.
of the larger whales this expired air is sometimes so impure as
to have a foetid odour, and blackens lead paint. The lungs are
capacious so as to enable the animals to sustain immersion for
a considerable time, but the ribs are less free than in the Right
Whale. A comparison of the thoracic chambers of the Whale-
bone Whales with those of the Toothed Whales certainly gives
the impression of greater powers of expansion in the former, the
skeleton of the thorax in the Toothed Whales approaching more
nearly that of the Seals. Yet a large Sperm-Whale remains
about an hour below water, sometimes even longer. When it
comes to the surface, it sends off obliquely upward and forward
a succession of spouts at intervals of ten or fifteen seconds, the
expirations, according to Bennett,* making a rushing noise like
surf-waves, but no sound connected with inspiration is heard.
The smaller Toothed Whales would appear to remain a much
shorter time under water, and such as the Ca’ing Whales in
respiring make a considerable noise, somewhat like the sudden
escape of steam from a valve, or still more like the puff of a gas-
or oil-engine. Yet it sometimes happens that a large Finner
will thrust its head above water, as at the entrance to Loch-
maddy, within a few feet of a boat, perhaps for observation, and
no sound be heard or vapour seen. The boatman, in alarm, in
this case, shouted that his frail craft would be swamped by the
tail as the Whale went under, but, as it happened, the Finner,
after inspecting the boat for some seconds, quietly slid below
the surface, and, being suspicious, had turned its head seaward
and passed out of the loch into the Minch. As on this occasion
the sea was as smooth as glass, the blowing of a Whale in the
loch would have been seen for miles; indeed, the heads of the
Seals were everywhere conspicuous. Seeing that such forms
must come to the surface to breathe, the mode in which they
respire during sleep, and, indeed, the position during the latter
condition, are at present obscure. Some whalers are of opinion
that the Right Whale sleeps head downward for hours in the
water, or at least below the surface, while its tail is at the
surface,+ and that one has been harpooned in this position. A
recent writer, indeed, supports this view by the case of a
* ©Narrative of a Whaling Voyage, 1840.’
+ D. Gray, ‘ Scottish Fishery Board’s Report, 1889.’
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 93
Narwhal which he found quiescent, and apparently asleep at
the surface with its head immersed, and is of opinion that in
Whales respiration is suspended during sleep. As stated, how-
ever, in 1885, when the matter was first brought forward at the
Aberdeen Meeting of the British Association (where Mr. Gray
read his paper), further observations are necessary. Collett *
and Lillie+t both refer to the views of whalers, who think that
after storing their lungs with air the Finners can remain eight
or ten hours under water.
The organs of the circulatory system are so similar in most
respects to those in ordinary mammals that they need not be
alluded to, save on one point, viz. the presence of numerous
spongy networks of blood-vessels (retia muirabilia), such as
those in the region of the spine, which by some are supposed
to be connected with respiration, but which may also serve for
the interchange of material between the lymph and blood, and
therefore connected with nutrition; or the network may supply
pure blood to the spinal cord and brain during immersion, and
when great pressure on the lungs exists.
As parts of the digestive system (the next subject for con-
sideration), the teeth form a characteristic feature. They are of
tne kind called ‘‘ homodont’’—that is, nearly alike, the only
exception being the Zeuglodonts (of which the skull and vertebre
only are known) of the Eocene period of North America.} The
Zeuglodonts, however, differ considerably from the living Toothed
Whales—in fact, they hold an intermediate position between the
Toothed and the Whalebone Whales. The teeth anteriorly are
simple and conical—the first three in the premaxillary, and
therefore corresponding with incisors, the next is also simple
and conical, but it does not exceed the others in size. Then
follow five teeth with two roots, and compressed, pointed,
denticulated crowns. The teeth in the Dolphins are held by
_ Kiikenthal and others to belong to the milk-dentition, and
therefore that they are truly diphyodont, like most terrestrial
mammals.
* Proc. Zool. Soc. 1886, p. 263.
+ Ibid., 1910, p. 790.
t Giebel, Jourdan, and D’Arcy Thompson think Zeuglodonts are allied to
Seals and Carnivores, not to Cetaceans.
94 THE ZOOLOGIST.
In the Sperm-Whale the massive teeth, which some (with a
tinge of romance) say the animal uses as lures for the cuttle-
fishes on which it feeds, have no enamel, only dentine covered
with cement, and they form good ivory. In the allied Ziphius,
again, only one tooth occurs on each side near the anterior end
of the mandible. In Mesoplodon these form strong tusks (one
on each side), larger in the male than in the female—indeed, it
has more than once happened that this form has been described
as edentulous, since they are sometimes hidden in the gum, or
may have been lost. In the Bottle-nose (Hyperoodon) they are
minute and entirely concealed in the gum, so that the animal is
practically toothless.* Inthe Susu they are numerous, sharp in
the young, worn in the old. Amongst the Dolphins the teeth,
as a rule, are more or less numerous in both jaws. In the
Narwhal, however, besides some irregular rudiments, only a
pair occur in the upper jaw-bones (maxillaries). These are
concealed in the female, but in the male the left tusk is more
than half the length of the animal, with a sinistral spire.t The
teeth of the Killer are powerful organs for prehension—sharp
in the young, blunt and sometimes angled from friction in the
old animals. The crowns are coated with enamel.
The stomach in the Toothed Whales is complex, some authors
attributing no fewer than six or seven chambers to that of the
Bottle-nose. Others, again, are of opinion that only two com-
partments exist in the stomach of the Pilot-Whale, but, as
Dr. Murie, in his able memoir, states, there are at least four.
The first cavity in this species (Pilot-Whale) is the largest—and
this in the Porpoise is characterized by its pale, tough, non-
vascular lobulated folds; the second a globular sac, with highly
vascular ridges in the Porpoise ; the third also rounded ; while
the fourth is an elongated cavity with the pylorus at the end of
it. There is thus a certain resemblance to the condition in the
Sirenians and in the ruminant ungulates, such as the ox and
sheep. -
It is an interesting fact that these huge inhabitants of the
* As in the examples in many museums.
+ Some suppose it pierces the ice with its tusk to breathe ; others that it
uses it as a spear for fishes. Occasionally two tusks of nearly equal length
are present.
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 95
ocean prey to a large extent on cuttle-fishes. Thus the Sperm-
Whale feeds on these for the most part, though it also swallows
fishes, such as the cod, albicore, and bonito. It has been sup-
posed that this whale descends in the water and opens its mouth
widely, so as to expose the teeth as a lure, as already indicated,
but the great numbers and often large size of the cuttle-fishes
in the regions frequented by the Sperm-Whale make capture by
the ordinary method probable, and Lillie has supposed that
certain marks and abrasions on the skin of the head of this
whale are due to the suckers of gigantic cuttle-fishes. That
teeth are not absolutely necessary for the capture of the squids
and other cuttle-fishes, the case of the Bottle-noses (Hyperoodon)
sufficiently proves, since they are practically toothless; yet toa
large extent they live on these creatures (e. g. Gonatus fabricii).
Holothurians are also found in their stomachs.* The Narwhal
feeds on similar forms, besides small fishes and crabs. The
Susu of India, again, preys on fishes, such as Wallago, Sacco-
branchus, and species of Clupea, and Dr. John Anderson, who
has written an important memoir on this form, finds that it
pursues the fishes into the paddy-fields, and thus grains of rice
may readily get into its stomach. The Porpoise, White Whale,
and the Dolphins, again, live mainly on fishes, the destruction
of food-fishes by the Porpoises alone on our shores being note-
worthy ; and, as digestion goes on rapidly, the lenses of the eyes
and the otoliths are soon the only recognizable parts in the first
stomach. No provision, indeed, exists for the passage of other
than semi-fluid material into the gut, for the pyloric opening is
minute. The most predatory of the whole series, however, is
the Killer (Orca), the only one which feeds on animals with
warm blood, though it varies its diet by occasionally devour-
ing fishes. This powerful Whale swiftly pursues Porpoises and
Dolphins, seizes them with its powerful teeth, and swallows
them entire. The same fate befalls the nimble Seals, the skins
of which, turned inside out, it ejects by-and-by from its stomach,
after the manner of birds of prey with balls of hair, or like the
* It is curious that the Teleostean ‘“‘ dolphin”’ (Coryphena) also feeds on
cuttle-fishes. This may be of interest to those, like Dr. Jungklaus, who
think that the absence of the first stomach in the Ziphoids is associated with
their diet of cuttle-fishes.
96 THE ZOOLOGIST.
Chimpanzee, with the feathers of the birds it eats. The Killers,
indeed, are the terror of their neighbours in the ocean, for a
few of them will drive a herd of White Whales shorewards in
terror, and they even beach themselves in their efforts to escape
these predaceous animals, which bite large portions from their
fleeing prey, so that the surface of the water is covered with oil
and blubber, for, like other carnivorous forms, they kill and
lacerate more than they can possibly eat. The fondness of Orca
for the White Whale seems to be the explanation of the pursuit of
a white-painted boat off the Outer Hebrides by a large example.
The fishermen on board had great difficulty in beating it off
with oars and a boat-hook, and as quickly as possible gained the
shore. The larger Whales, such as the Blue Whale (Sibbald’s
Rorqual) and the Hump-backed Whale (Megaptera), are also
attacked by the Killers, and severely lacerated or killed-
The great voracity of these animals is well shown in the caretul
description of a specimen, 21 ft. long, by Prof. Eschricht, who
found that the first stomach was about 6 ft. long and 4 ft. broad.
On opening it he at once discovered five or six Seals, some large,
others small, all flayed, and so closely intertwined that it was
necessary to pull them out one by one to count them. But this
was not all; gradually Porpoises were disclosed, one entire, the
rest more or less digested, or represented only by bones. The
examination by this competent anatomist showed that when the
contents were carefully assorted no fewer than fourteen Seals
and thirteen Porpoises had recently been devoured. The Killers
frequently attacked the young Californian Grey Whales, and
have been known to pull down a captured Whale when boats
were towing it to the ship.
The sense of sight in most of the Toothed Whales is tolerably
acute, and, indeed, the eye of such as the Killer is larger in
proportion than that of the Whalebone Whale. Many of the
larger forms have a habit of thrusting their heads above water
_to reconnoitre when they suspect danger, as, for instance, the
Pilot- Whales when they have been embayed, or the Sperm-Whale
when hunted. Though the auditory canal is small and there is
no external ear, the sense of hearing is fairly developed. The
organs of smell are, on the other hand, in a rudimentary con-
dition or apparently absent, and in this respect they are inferior
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 97
to the Whalebone Whales. Taste would not appear to be highly
developed, and the tongue is more or less fixed to the floor of
the mouth. Many of the Toothed Whales are extremely sensi-
tive to their surroundings, and some observers have supposed
that, for instance, the Sperm-Whales are enabled to com-
municate with their fellows at long distances, or at least that
the latter, especially the females, become aware of danger to
their fellows, and endeavour to succour them.
The general acuteness and the social instincts of the Toothed
Whales are highly developed. The dexterity of a pair of Ca’ing
Whales in surveying a series of salmon-stake nets is noteworthy.
Their strong social instincts often lead to their destruction, the
whole “‘ school” or herd keeping together and being driven by
encircling boats on shore. It would be difficult to find a better
illustration than that which occurred in Scalloway Harbour
(Shetland) a season or two before 1871. More than two
hundred of these Whales had been driven by a chain of boats
into the harbour of Scalloway, which formed a fatal cul-de-sac,
communicating with the outer sea only by a narrow inlet. The
slaughter of the unfortunate animals was at its height in the
confined area, in which the Whales were so packed that boats
and men were upset in the deeply dyed water, when a large old
male, approaching 30 ft. in length, broke through the boats on
suard, passed along the narrow inlet, and, in spite of opposition,
reached the open sea. There he swam about a short time, but,
finding himself alone, he once more headed for the inlet, passed
the boats, and was killed in the centre of the others in Scallo-
way Harbour. The men justly regarded him as the leader of
the herd.*
In connection with the reproduction of the Cetaceans, a
feature of moment in the structure of the adult male Porpoise
is the great size of the testes, which in July occupy a large
share of the abdominal cavity, and at first sight are apparently
out of proportion to the needs of the animal, which is often
seen in pairs all round the coasts of Britain. It is true, at
a glance, in Shetland one hundred and fifty or more may be
observed during the same month, disporting themselves (pro-
* The skulls of the Ca’ing Whales are generally used as props for boats
at Scalloway, a purpose for which their shape peculiarly fits them.
Zool, 4th ser. vol. XV., March, 1911, I
98 THE ZOOLOGIST.
bably feeding) along the margin of a voe or bay, the black
specks at a distance resembling a swarm of ducks. The penis
is large in most Cetaceans, and especially in the Porpoise, in
which the tip is slender, almost probe-pointed, with the aperture
of the urethra just within the extremity. The size of the testes,
which greatly exceed in proportion those of the polygamous ram,
would point to similar habits in the case of the Porpoise, yet
there is no clear evidence on this head.
Further, at St. Andrews, in July, single Porpoises have
often been noticed swimming quietly in a circle near the com-
mencement of the Hast Rocks, and they have been found to be
adult females accompanied by their young, which may be ob-
served, as the mother rolls on its side, snapping at the mamme.
Moreover, it has happened that the suckling has been captured
in a salmon stake-net, or stranded on the beach, whilst on one
occasion an adult female was caught in a neighbouring stake-
net with the milk flowing from the teats* on slight pressure, as
when laid on a slab. Like certain other forms, the Porpoise
therefore seeks the shore for reproduction. Such may also
have been the reason why a Ca ing Whale of 12-14 ft. sought
the beach at the laboratory in October some years ago, and was
almost stranded, until, by a desperate effort, it reached deeper
water, and in its fright headed for the open sea with all speed.
Like the Whalebone Whales, the toothed forms are for the
most part captured by the harpoon, the harpoon-gun of modern
times being so efficient a weapon as sometimes to kill the
smaller forms by a single discharge. The modern harpoon is
fired from a gun fixed to the bow of the whaling-boat, and has a
screwed point containing an explosive, which is fired by a
seconds fuse. While dealing destruction, for instance, in the
thorax behind the flipper it does not disengage the flukes of the
harpoon from the tissues, so that the ‘‘ line” (rope) from the
boat still holds. Whether the Toothed Whales can be profitably
caught by the Japanese method of throwing a large rope-net
over them and towing them to shore alive remains to be seen.
The large Whalebone Whales are thus captured. The most
* Vide ‘Chemical Composition of the Milk of the Porpoise,” by Prof.
Purdie, F.R.S., ‘Ann. Nat. Hist.’ December, 1885, and ‘Chemical News,’
October 2nd, 1885.
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 99
valuable species is the Sperm-Whale, the fishing for which was
begun by the British in 1775, and ceased when it became no
longer remunerative in 1858. The fishery was instituted much
earlier by the Americans, who still carry it on. The pursuit of
the Sperm-Whale differs in some respects from that of the
Greenland or Right Whale, since it occasionally charges the
boats, striking the men out of them with its tail, or rolling over
on its back so as to bring its lower jaw more readily into action,
it bites the boats. Even the ships themselves, it is said, have
been attacked and sunk. A good whale yields ten tons of oil
(=sixty barrels), besides spermaceti. Moreover, the intestine
frequently contains a valuable concretion called ambergris—a
bezoar. This species ranges over most seas, the fishery being
chiefly conducted in the warmer parts of the Atlantic and
Pacific. They go about in ‘‘ schools” of males, females, and
young, though old males are frequently solitary. It is occa-
sionally stranded on our shores, and is captured with other
forms at the British whaling stations.
The Bottle-nose (Hyperoodon rostratus) abounds in the Polar
regions, and is supposed to come southwards in autumn and
winter. It is hunted near the ice-edge from the coast of
Labrador to Nova Zembla, chiefly in May, June, and July.
It is not very long, however, since attention has been directed
to it; the first clue was given by a ship from Peterhead in 1877,
for, failing to catch Seals, it turned its attention to the Bottle-
noses. They have been specially hunted since 1882, in which
year two hundred and three were captured by the late Capt.
David Gray, of Peterhead. The Norwegians still pursue them,
but the British whalers have not found them remunerative. An
average specimen yields 22 cwt. of oil, five per cent. of which
is spermaceti.
Of the fresh-water forms, the remarkable Platanista, or
Susu, is confined to the Brahmaputra, Indus, and Ganges, as
far up the rivers as the water will float it. It is caught by
a bamboo shaft with an iron barb loosely let into the end, and
to which is attached a long line wound round the bamboo. It
is eaten by many of the low caste Hindoos, the Sansee women
being particularly fond of it. Its oil is used as an embrocation
for rheumatism, for burning in lamps, and for coating leather.
12
100 THE ZOOLOGIST.
The White Whale is captured for its blubber, chiefly in the
Arctic Seas, though it sometimes travels southwards, and several
have been stranded or captured on our shores. One passed the
Gatty Marine Laboratory on a Sunday a year or two ago, and
was probably that caught shortly afterwards at Cullercoats, and
described by Prof. Meek. The whalers occasionally drive them
into shallow water, especially when they see Killers after them,
and kill them with lances, or into narrow bays, when their
escape is prevented by strong nets. One ship in 1883 secured
twelve hundred.
Besides the interest directly connected with the commercial
value of the Toothed Whales, the natives along the banks of the
Irrawaddy believe that a bluish fresh-water Dolphin (Orcella
fluviatilis), described by Dr. John Anderson, purposely draws
fishes into their nets, and each fishing village has its particular
guardian Dolphin, which receives a special name. Moreover,
suits are not infrequently brought into the native courts to
recover a share in the capture of fishes in which a plaintiffs
Dolphin has been held to have filled the nets of a rival fisher-
man. It need hardly be said that this superstition makes it
difficult to obtain specimens.
A few remarks may be added about the homologies and the
probable origin of the peculiar mammals just considered. Un-
fortunately Paleontology gives comparatively little help in the
solution of these problems, though, as Sir William Flower
suggests, it is possible that their absence from the Cretaceous
seas may be accounted for by the supposition that the group
was originally a fresh-water one, like Platanista of the Ganges,
and the Inia of the Amazon, both of which retain certain
generalized characters.
From the complex stomach of the Toothed Whales, the
simple condition of the liver, and the structure of the respiratory
organs, the great anatomist, John Hunter, was of opinion that
they approached the Ungulates, or hoofed animals, the primary
form of which was probably omnivorous, like the pig. Others,
again, think that they have been derived from the carnivorous
animals through the Seals and Walruses. Prof. Huxley sees in
the teeth of Zeuglodon the connecting-link between the Cetaceans
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 101
and the latter group (viz. the Seals ana Walruses). Prof. Ryder,
of the University of Pennsylvania, agrees with him, and,
further, believes that the terminal parts of the posterior limbs
are represented externally by the flukes. Prof. Albrecht links
them with his hypothetical Promammalia. Sir William Flower,
again, who thinks the Whales were derived from terrestrial
mammals with four limbs, with a hairy covering, with sense-
organs—especially smell—adapted for living on land, strongly
objects to the views just mentioned, since the Seal has been
adapted for its aquatic life by the peculiar development of its
hind limbs, while the tail is rudimentary. The greatly de-
veloped hind feet functionally represent the tail of the Cetaceans
in which the hind limbs are absent. He thinks it difficult to
suppose that when the hind limbs had once been so well adapted
for swimming they could ever have been reduced and their
action transferred to the tail. The animal must have been in
too helpless a condition to maintain its existence during the
transference. He considers it more reasonable to suppose that
the Whales were derived from animals with large tails, which
were used in swimming, and eventually with such effect that the -
hind limbs became no longer necessary. He instances such
tails, for example, as in the American Sea-Otter (Pteronewra
sandbachit), or the Beaver.
These theories, however, leave the inquirer very much where
they found him, and there is still a want of anything approach-
ing a complete ancestry of the remarkable animals which have
formed the subject of these remarks. The absence of such
explanations, however, detracts little from the interest asso-
ciated with the striking modifications of mammalian structure,
the social and other instincts, the economic value, and the
peculiar habits which make them traverse the seas from the icy
Polar regions to temperate latitudes on the one hand, and on the
other pass up fresh-water rivers for more than a thousand miles.
Their whole organization marvellously adapts them for their
special existence, and it can only be a cause for regret that their
persevering pursuit by man, aided by every modern invention,
is in many cases rapidly thinning the ranks of animals so full
of scientific as well as general interest.
Finally, few, even among zoologists, have devoted attention
102 THE ZOOLOGIST.
to the relations which the Cetaceans—large and small—have to
the marine fishes. Most of the Toothed Whales devour fishes or
cuttle-fishes ; certainly those of our coasts are chiefly piscivorous
or carnivorous. The effect of removing from two to five hun-
dred of these large fish-destroyers in a single season must, from
the standpoint of those who believe in the impoverishment of
the sea, give the food-fishes a better chance of survival. Yet no
change has ever been noticed in regard to increase or diminu-
tion. The swarms of Herrings and white fishes and the abund-
ance of Salmon remain as before. The same reflections arise
in considering the recent captures, at the various stations in
the British area, of the great Finners and Humpbacks (Whale-
bone Whales) in hundreds. Whilst some of these live largely
on crustaceans, such as the Huphausiacea, or ‘‘ Krill’’ (those on
our coasts taking Meganyctiphanes norvegica), others frequently
devour Herrings and other fishesin quantities, the annual aggre-
gate being enormous. It has not been shown that the removal
of these has in any way modified the abundance or scarcity of
the sea-fishes, though their capture is unpopular with the
fishermen, perhaps on the ground of doing them service by
driving the shoals of Herrings nearer the coast. The destruc-
tion of the food-fishes by the two groups (Toothed and Whale-
bone Whales) probably equals that accomplished by man with
all his modern apparatus. Yet the wholesale removal of such
numbers of both kinds of fish-destroyers makes no change in the
fish-supply. The resources of Nature are of so gigantic a kind
as to be practically unaffected. It is no refutation of this view
to point to the fact that in every civilized country the food-
fishes near the shore are fewer or more difficult to capture than
before, and this in countries where no trawling has occurred.
Every food-fish when molested becomes more wary, and, though
the larger forms are fewer in a given area which has been much
fished, yet there is no scarcity of fishes. Just as the resources
of the sea are not materially affected by the presence or absence
of the great fish-destroyers, so the persistent and widespread
efforts of man do not impoverish the sea to a serious extent.
The negative results of the present costly International Fisheries’
work and the now ominous silence on the head of the im-
poverishment of the sea (the mainspring of the undertaking)
BRIEF SKETCH OF THE TOOTHED WHALES. 108
speak for themselves, and corroborate the opinions expressed
eight years ago as to the International Scheme* :— ‘‘ The
Government having elected to test, for instance, whether the
views stated in the ‘Resources of the Sea’ hold, or if the
opinions of the vast majority of the fishing population and
others are more worthy of confidence, viz. that great deteriora-
tion [in the sea] has been caused by man, and that man can by
various measures control that deterioration, it may after all be
best patiently to wait for the result. Though the experience
may be costly, it may likewise be salutary. Yet there is no fear
of extinction of any species, especially of those important to
man.” Before and since that was written hatcheries for sea-
fishes have striven for the cure of this ‘‘ impoverishment,” yet
they have not convinced many experienced observers of their
necessity, and have not yet given undoubted proof of their
benefits, though there is no objection to affording a longer
period of probation if that were demanded. A few ‘‘ schools”
of Porpoises or of the larger Whales would rapidly dispose of the
comparatively small (though costly) additions on this head with-
out affecting the general supply. Again, the ovarian contents of
a few fishmongers’ shops in March would far outnumber the
total of the larve placed in the sea by the laborious efforts of
all the hatcheries, yet the balance is unaltered. The scale of
Nature’s work in the ocean is beyond the action of such pigmy
measures, and the study of the relation of the fish-eating Whales
to the fisheries shows how completely beyond man’s power it is
to affect the survival of the ordinary food-fishes in the sea.
* ‘British Fisheries’ Investigations and the International Scheme,’
Dundee, April, 1903, p. 33.
104 THE ZOOLOGIST.
AN OBSERVATIONAL DIARY ON THE DOMESTIC
HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK (ACCIPITER
NISUS).
By Epmunp SELovs.
(Continued from p. 68.)
Back again at 4.40 p.m. and find the female Sparrow-Hawk
covering the young as usual. She now sits so high that I can
see her almost to the ventral surface. Just upon 5 she stands
up in the nest, and, the next moment, flies off it, whilst almost
as she does so I hear the cry of the male, and then see him
obscurely amidst the branches. The female hawk makes one
long graceful curve down upon him, then sweeps away, and, the
next moment the male has flown out and dropped on to a branch
well in my view—I get the glasses on to him and can see that
there is nothing in his claws. The female has settled somewhat
beyond him, and I cannot see her. Just upon 5.5, however, she
flies to the nest, and as she comes down upon the rim (usual
place) what looks like a small bird makes, if Iam not mistaken
(but in this I well may be), some movement as though to escape.
In any case it is instantly eviscerated, as I gather, and distri-
buted to the chicks, who are now seen leaping up in the nest,
and seizing each mouthful ravenously. ‘There is no pluming,
red meat being instantly torn from the body, nor had I noticed
any appearance of this having been plucked before. This last,
however, does not go for much, since the distance and partial or
complete interposition of the structure of the nest itself makes
certainty here almost impossible—at any rate, something which I
have not yet attained unto. From her leaving the nest to her
coming down upon it again the hawk was away a bare five
minutes. As far as I can interpret the matter, she must have
flown direct to the male and received the prey from him almost,
if not quite, in passing, Then settling, she probably made a
hasty meal herself, before flying on with it to the nest. I hope,
therefore, that I was mistaken (as is indeed probable) in my
DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK. 105
suspicion that the bird moved of its own motion, after being
thus brought in. The mind strives unconsciously to minimise
and render inconsiderable the suffering that exists in Nature ;
but this isa mere weak—nay, a cowardly—concession to benevo-
lent feelings. The feeding takes just five minutes, and the hawk
almost immediately upon its close passes to the other side of
the nest, and after standing there for a minute or two, covers
the nest.
I now go to one corner of the plantation near to where the
rendezvous between the male and female hawk usually takes
place, in hopes of seeing the actual delivery of the booty on the
next occasion, but the concealing properties of the foliage (more
apparent to the field than to the theoretical naturalist) make
this, I fear, a rather forlorn hope. Iam, however, luckier than
I expected, for just as I finish the above sentence (about 5.55),
there is the cry of the male just above me. It is repeated, and
the bird then flies amongst the beeches and settles in my sight.
Almost as he does so the female comes flying up to him, and
though the movements are so light and rapid that I cannot
actually see the booty passed to and received by her, yet it evi-
dently is so, for after settling for a moment quite near the male,
with that curious plaintive cry which I have noted before, she
flies to another branch, in splendid view, and I see that she has
something in one of her claws only. It is not a whole bird, but
no more than the fragment of one; it looks like the breastbone
torn off from the rest, and, through the glasses, I see her now,
for the first time, denude this of the feathers still clothing it,
for it has certainly, I think, been partially plumed already.
Then she flies with this to another tree, where I can still see
her continuing the process, but, the next moment, goes straight
to the nest with it—for though I cannot actually see the nest
from here, I can locate it exactly. The male, therefore, not only
brings in and delivers the quarry, but he delivers it, sometimes
at any rate, both plucked (more or less) and in fragments, and
this accords with the appearance of the object which I saw him
carrying some time ago in the free air, outside the plantation,
as noted. That, too, in its disc-like appearance, was suggestive
either of the naked back or breast of some small bird torn both
from the head and the rest of the body.
106 THE ZOOLOGIST.
At 6.25 there is exactly the same scene over again—-as far at
least as I can follow it. The male flies in to the same or nearly
the same place, the female comes flying up to him, seems just
to pass him merely, then settles and utters the plaintive-sound-
ing but in reality satisfied note—for whereas I had thought this
a demand or petition for the morsel, it seems in reality to be the
note of contentment, after having received it. In what follows,
however, I am less lucky, not being able to see the hawk plum-
ing or otherwise manipulating what she has got; but I see her,
shortly, fly back towards the nest and disappear amidst the
branches in which it is situated. Soon afterwards the male
leaves his perch, and settles somewhere near. An interesting
point to note is that, each time, the male has flown in to one
point in a corner of the plantation—perhaps into the same tree,
and this is either the actual one or the one next to it, in which,
low down, is the deserted Jay’s nest, where a dead bird—a young
but fully-feathered Redstart—was placed by one of the lee:
and taken by the female on the following morning.
June 80th.—To-day, I only got to the plantation at 11.15
a.m., and disturbed the female hawk (I think) sitting on one of the
trees near where I was going to take up my position. I walked
to look at the nest—finding it empty—and then sat down where
I had yesterday, wishing to make the same observations. In
ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, there was a rushing in the
air and the female hawk came sweeping through the trees
towards the male, whom I caught sight of almost at the same
time. It was the same as yesterday, except that the female
seemed more fiercely insistent, her cry more importunate, even
ageressive—indeed, it was very much like the swoop of a Lesser
Skua after Gull or Tern, to force them to disgorge their fish.
As before I found it impossible to see the actual delivery, and
afterwards, though I got two or three views of the female hawk,
I could never make out whether she carried anything, so that,
setting impatient, I stalked her, as she flew from tree to tree,
and, at last, out of the plantation, without being any the wiser.
I then went to my usual observatory for the nest, and, in a few
minutes time, she flew in, tore up something and distributed it
to the young. My reading of the whole thing is as follows :—
The female hawk had become impatient for supplies and left the
DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK. 107
nest, not to hunt for them herself, but to wait about, in this tree
or that, for the male. When the latter arrived she was more
than usually eager, and seized the booty from him almost fiercely.
Some of it she then perhaps ate, and would have flown sooner
to the nest with the rest, had I not followed her about, to escape
which annoyance she flew away, but shortly returned with it as
related.
I now left and on returning, at about 4.30 p.m., found the
hawk feeding her young. I saw her very plainly satisfy two,
not in several alternate distributions but by cramming first one
and then the other with a number of bits, the meal ending with
the second cramming. I then went to watch at the corner of
the plantation where the male usually comesin. After half an
hour or so there was his cry and, in another moment, he sailed
in, and hung suspended, on spread wings just under the roof of
the beeches (all quite young trees and, by consequence, not very
high), presenting a most graceful and elegant appearance. His
legs were stretched downwards, and in both the clawed feet he
held something which was clearly a portion and not the whole
body of the prey. It was, I think, as before, the breast or
breastal portion of a small bird, but there was not time to
consider it or to put up the glasses. The male had not hung
thus for more than a second or two, when the female hawk,
coming straight from the nest, accosted him in the air, yet
without appearing to touch him, and as he flew out from her
what he had been carrying had disappeared. So, too, the next
moment, had both the birds, and so quick and mowvementé was it
that I could not tell which was which, as they vanished amidst
the foliage, in opposite directions. Not being able to do any
better I sat down to watch the nest, and at 5.25, the female
hawk flew on to it with her acquisition with which she, at once,
fed the chicks. This lasted six minutes, and she then stood
statuesquely, for some time, after her wonted manner. She had
been absent from the nest, since leaving it to join the male,
about five minutes, during which time she had probably been
occupied in eating a part of what she had received or in plucking
or completing the plucking of it, as 1 have previously seen her do.
About 6 the male hawk again entered the plantation, but the
female did not leave the nest nearly so soon, and when she did I
108 THE ZOOLOGIST.
was unsuccessful in seeing anything except that the two were
together, She stayed longer away this time, and, on her return,
stood for a little while on the nest’s edge without making any
distribution. After that she did feed the chicks, but not in so
interested a manner as usual, nor were they, on their parts,
nearly so eager; also it was soon over, all which facts are
explained by the interval between this and the last meal not
having been a long one, so that neither mother nor children
were hungry. Leave at 6.35 p.m.
In this distribution, as well as the last one, and one or two
preceding it, it is to be noted that the hawk has stood upon the
opposite side of the rim of the nest to that on which, from the
beginning, it has been her custom to, and in afterwards covering
the chicks has stepped over them in the opposite direction, and
settled herself from that side. This a curious reversal, for it is
not at all as if the bird stood now on one part of the nest, and
now another, indifferently. On the contrary, there has been
uniformity for a long time, and now, when a change comes, it is
the exact converse of what was, whilst the uniformity continues.
July 1st.—Got to the plantation before 3.30 a.m. and waited
in a part of it that the male hawk usually comes to. Ata few
minutes past 4 I heard his cry, and a little afterwards there
was the cry of the female, after which it was evident that the
two birds were together. A few minutes later the female flew
back into the home-tree, but I did not see her on the nest when
I had walked within view of it. In another five minutes or so,
however, upon the renewal of the call of the male hawk, she
flew, apparently, from off it—perhaps from a part of the rim
where she was invisible or hardly to be seen in the still gloomy
plantation. She could not, however, have been feeding the
chicks, or I must have seen her. After this exit—no doubt the
second one—there were the usual cries, and I saw the female fly
from one tree to another, and, the last time, either into the home-
tree itself or one whose branches adjoined it. From wherever she
settled came the usual cry, which is uttered at intervals during a
meal, discussed in this manner, for she has always fed silently on
the nest. Very probably, therefore, she was feeding on what the
male had brought her, but if so, she continued her meal upon
the nest after she had flown to it again, at 4.30. At first she
DOMESTIC HABITS OF THE SPARROW-HAWK. 109
ate, only, herself, nor did I see anything of the chicks, but, after
a time, she began to give them a little, and they then became
very conspicuous—like little white ghosts or hobgoblins—so that
it would have been impossible to have missed them, had they
been fed before—even more so than the grown bird were there
degrees in impossibility. I could only see two, however, and
begin to think that this may be the full number. The above
tallies with a previous observation (June 24th) when the hen
(from the first hehtening) came twice to the nest and, each time,
tore up and devoured something herself, but I could not make
out that she fed the chicks before the third visit, with booty
(remarkable as being brought by the male) at 8.25. Then,
however, the chicks were younger, and, might have done
perhaps with more sleep and less early feeding.
It was not till after 6.80 that I again heard the cry Hot the
male hawk (as I supposed) in the plantation—but very subdued.
I was then away from the home-tree, but the female had kept on
the nest up to a few minutes before this, and on returning to
my post again—still hearing this very subdued weak note—I
found the nest empty. I now walked into the open and saw one
of the hawks flying, as before, over small trees and tree-bushes,
into one of which he went down. When he rose from it again,
a little later, he came flying swiftly down towards me, and, as he
neared me, I saw that he carried something—a fragment,
smaller I thought than on other occasions, but unmistakable.
He flew into the plantation, whither I followed and saw either
him again still flying with it, amongst the trees, or else the
female who had received it from him. I thought, at the
time, it was the female, and there had been ample time for
the delivery, which, as has been seen, is a very quick affair.
Walking to observe the nest, I found it still empty, but, in a
moment or two, the female flew on to it and began to tear up
and distribute to the chicks. I think now that the subdued ery
which I heard in the plantation was not that of the male but of
the female hawk who had left the nest, probably impatient for
her partner’s arrival. I had, indeed, received the impression of
another hawk flying outside the plantation, besides the one I
have mentioned. Of this, however, I could not be sure.
There is no reason why the female, having thus left the nest,
110 THE ZOOLOGIST.
should not have flown abroad, but had she caught her prey,
she should have been at the nest with it before and not
after the advent of the male. Moreover, the usual method must
now, in all cases, be assumed where there is not sufficient
evidence to prove its having been in abeyance. I now left.
Coming again at 4.15 p.m. I find the bird standing on the
rim of the nest as though she had fed the young, not long since.
Some time between 4.30 and 5 I heard the cry in the plantation,
but I could only see one bird amongst the trees, and as the
female had then left the nest, it may have been hers. This bird
was still there when I went back to watch the nest at 4.55, and
it was not till 5.25 that the female returned to it, but instead of
feeding the chicks merely sat statuesquely on the rim. There
was no importunacy on the part of the chicks. In this case
there has been no good evidence of the presence of the male in
the plantation—the facts point rather the other way—and accord-
ingly the female, though she is some three quarters of an hour
away brings nothing back with her. This, again, looks as
though she were dependent on the male for her food supply—or,
at least, as though the habit of awaiting him for it, were so
confirmed as not to be easily broken through.
(To be continued.)
(Quetta)
NOTHS AND QUERIES.
MAMMALIA.
Variety of the Badger.—I have just seen, in my brother’s posses-
gion, a variety of an adult male Badger, taken at Broxton, Cheshire.
The black in the type is replaced by a rich fawn, and the grey is
faintly tinged with the same colour. Eyes and irides dark pink ;
nails brownish black.—AtrRED NewstEap (Chester).
Grey Seal (Halicherus grypus) in the Dee: a Correction.—On
Feb. 20th last I examined a Seal (which was captured in the Dee
at Chester on Noy. 19th, 1905), in the Grosvenor Museum, Chester.
I was struck by its flat head, broad muzzle, dark pelage, and the
comparatively wide space between its nostrils. Feeling sure that its
label—Common Seal (Phoca vitulina)—was erroneous, I extracted
some of its teeth, premolars and molars, and found that they had the
simple crowns, and the premolars the connate roots of Halicherus.
IT compared these teeth with the description and plate in Owen’s
‘Odontography, and with the grinders of a Common Seal and the
Grey Seal which was captured at Warrington in 1908. I am satisfied
that the animal has been incorrectly identified, and that it is a young
Grey Seal. Unfortunately the error has been perpetuated in Forrest’s
‘Vertebrate Fauna of North Wales,’ p. 42, and in the ‘ Vertebrate
Fauna of Cheshire,’ p. 42, for which Mr. Oldham and I are responsible.
I wish to draw attention to this correction, which supports my belief
that the Grey Seal, being probably resident, is of more frequent
occurrence on the coast of North Wales, and consequently in Cheshire
and Lancashire waters, than the Common Seal.— T. A. Cowarp
(Bowdon, Cheshire).
AVES.
Man Mobbed by a Ring-Ouzel (Turdus torquatus).— When cross-
ing one of our local moors some time ago I could hear at a distance
the scolding notes of a Ring-Ouzel, which increased in violence as I
approached. Whilst still at a respectable distance, on my making a
pause, the bird—a female—came and dashed at me with some vigour.
Presuming it had a nest or fledged young, I started off in the direction
where it was first seen. No sooner had I commenced my journey
112 THE 4COLOGIST.
than it precipitated and swooped in a most violent manner, disputing
my passage at every step, and I was fearful at times lest it should
hurl itself against my head, but this it did avoid, though at the least
possible margin of actuality. I ascertained that the young had
fledged, and noticed that the male bird kept at a safe distance.
When this species has young it is usually noisy and even bold in its
attack on any intruder into its haunts, but this I consider mildness
itself in comparison with the fierceness and vehemence displayed in
the above incident.—E. P. Burrrerrienp (Wilsden, Bradford).
Are House-Martins Decreasing ?—Of late years there has been no
little controversy as to whether Cheldon urbica is decreasing, but
from observations extending over a considerable number of years it
would be difficult for us to predicate with certainty that such is the
case. There is little doubt but that it can be affirmed to be less
numerous in many of its old haunts than formerly, but, on the other
hand, it is much more numerous—especially is such the case—in its
more natural habitats. The Sparrow is one of its greatest enemies,
and is undoubtedly responsible for its decrease in many localities.
Some property here within the last two or three years has undergone
considerable repairs, which has presumably decreased the nesting
facilities of the House-Sparrow, and it is astonishing how the House-
Martin has multiplied in the meantime. It may be that this species
is returning to some extent to its more primitive breeding haunts,
where it feels more secure.—H. P. Burterrienp (Wilsden, Bradford).
Distribution of the Linnet.—I do not think it is possible that
White made the mistake of confounding the Twite with the Linnet
when he wrote that there were “in winter vast flocks of Common
Linnets,”’ as suggested (ante, p. 69). Nor is it wonderful that the
Twite is not mentioned in White’s letters, for it is extremely probable
it never occurred at Selborne ; even on the coast of Hampshire it is a
rare bird (‘Birds of Hampshire,’ p. 67), and I believe it is so every-
where inland in England, except in its northern breeding grounds.
To the coast of England, as a winter visitor, it seems to be rare
except in the eastern counties, where I have seen numbers in autumn
and early winter. I have no authentic record of the occurrence of
the Twite in Oxfordshire. With regard to the Linnet in winter,
although it is true that it leaves Oxfordshire to some extent in winter,
and that the great flocks we see in autumn usually leave us before
winter, yet this is not always so. On Dec. Ist, 1903, I saw on a
wheat-stubble the largest flock of Linnets I ever met with—it must
have comprised several thousands. And on Jan. 22nd, 1904, I sawa
NOTEHS AND QUERIES. 113
big flock in a clover-field on high ground. It is unlikely that these
were very early returning migrants (for they commonly return in
February and March), and it is noted in my journal for that day
that Linnets had been numerous all the winter.—O. V. Apuin (Blox-
ham, Oxon).
Hen- Harrier (Circus cyaneus).—An immature female of this species
was presented by Mr. Hugh Aldersey to the Chester Museum, by
whom it was shot on the Aldersey Hall Estate, near Broxton, Cheshire ;
date doubtful. As this bird is now only a rare visitor to the county
of Cheshire, I thought it advisable to send this record for publica-
tion. The donor told me that there is no mistake as to its being a
Cheshire specimen, and shot on his estate, but unfortunately he had
forgotten the date.—ALFRED NEewstTEaD (Chester).
Domestic Habits of the Sparrow-Hawk. — While reading Mr.
Selous’s interesting notes on Sparrow-Hawks, I was much surprised
to see his suggestion (ante, p. 53) that a bird whose eggs had been taken
about mid-May would have had time to deposit a second laying, and
hatch them out by June 23rd. A little consideration would have
shown that the boy’s statement was almost certainly correct, and I
can only suppose that Mr. Selous is unaware of the fact that the
period of incubation in this species is very prolonged. Additional -
observations on this subject are much needed, but I believe that in-
cubation always lasts more than four weeks, and in some cases
apparently exceeds five weeks in duration. The time, too (mid-
May), would be about the average date for a full clutch, while, if the
eggs in question had been a second laying, they would probably not
have been hatched out before the first week in August, or late in July
at the earliest. In England, where four or five old nests may often
be seen within a short distance of one another, it is well known that
they are used as larders, and it is interesting to find that when old
nests were not available, that of some other bird (in this case a Jay’s)
may be used for this purpose.—F’. C. R. Jourpain (Clifton Vicarage,
Ashburne, Derbyshire).
The Honey-Buzzard (Pernis apivorus).—The Honey-Buzzard has
long been known to breed in England, but, except in Hampshire, the
eggs or nestlings in the nest have been discovered only in a very few
instances. I have only been able to find records of eggs or nestlings
being found in Northumberland, Northamptonshire (nest of four
eggs), Oxfordshire, and Herefordshire ; but I have not yet looked up
the Burnham Beeches record of breeding annually for more exact
Gool. 4th ser. vol. XV.. March, 1911, K
114 THE ZOOLOGIST.
particulars. The reputed Yorkshire eggs seem to rest on an item in
a sale catalogue. There are also two old records, not exactly localized.
Willughby’s nestlings, found in a nest which had formerly been
a Kite’s, were perhaps found near his house in Warwickshire (a
county in which the Honey-Buzzard has twice since tried to nest),
but there is nothing to prove that thisis so. The other case, I think,
may be consigned to Shropshire with some show of reason. Pennant
figured a bird, supposed to be a female, shot on a nest containing
two eggs, ‘‘ blotched over with two reds something darker than those
of the Kestrel,” a good description of the eggs of the Honey-Buzzard.
Pennant says, in his article on this bird in the ‘ British Zoology,’
merely that he was favoured with this specimen by Mr. Plymly; but
I find in the preface to that work that Mr. Plymly is described as of
Longnor, Shropshire, in the list of learned and ingenious friends
from whom Pennant had received information; and, as country
gentlemen in the eighteenth century did not go much from home, it
is more than likely Mr. Plymly got the birds and eggs in question
from his own neighbourhood.—O. V. Apnin (Bloxham, Oxon).
Decrease of the Corn-Crake, Wryneck, and Nuthatch.—The de-
crease of the Corn-Crake as a breeding species, alluded to by Mr. J.
Steele Elliott (ante, p. 74), is, I fear, generalin England. But the fact
must not be overlooked that the numbers of this bird have fluctuated
in years gone by, even in Ireland—a country always favoured by this
bird. Thompson, in his ‘Natural History of Ireland’ (one of the
best books on our birds ever written), says that in the north of
Treland the Land-Rail became very much scarcer about the same
time as the Partridge, and continued so for fifteen years. They were
never more scarce than in 1843, “but within the last very few
summers they have, like that species, rapidly increased.” This
volume was published in 1850. At no time had Thompson heard
Corn-Crakes more plentiful than in 1848, and they were equally
abundant in 1849. Mr. Ussher, in 1900, wrote of it as common and
widespread, but states that it varies considerably in numbers from
season to season, and from one locality to another (‘ Birds of Ive-
land’). Sir Wm. Jardine stated that it had decreased in the south
of Scotland when he wrote. Ten years previously, in the Vale of
Annan, the bird was extremely common, but “ during last summer
(1841) only one or two pairs being heard within a stretch of several
miles” (‘ British Birds,’ vol. iii. p. 331). So that there is a remote
chance of the Corn-Crake again becoming common as a breeding
species in England. The chance is remote, I fear, for the scarcity
NOTES AND QUERIES. 115
has now lasted for a very long time. My notes on the former and
present status of the Corn-Crake in Oxfordshire will be found in
‘The Zoologist’ for 1903, p. 451, and I do not think the state of
affairs has altered much or at all since then. We hear of one
sometimes, but may go through a summer without hearing the bird’s
delightful craking. It is probably less rare in the wide meadows
bordering the upper Isis than elsewhere in the county. Last sum-
mer, however, | had a treat. A Corn-Crake established itself in a
clover-field on the east side of this village, where one had not been
heard for years, and I enjoyed the rare pleasure (formerly a common
one) of hearing the Corn-Crake’s call at night from the house. I had
not done so since 1904. The bird was seen when the clover was cut
in the second week in July, but no nest was found, although I offered
a reward for a report of it if discovered. We still get passing
migrants in autumn, and if there are any standing crops in the first
half of September a fair number of them get shot. This year I shot
two on the 3rd, and another was killed in standing barley and not
recovered. I saw another shot on the 10th. There were such great
breadths of barley and beans standing on the 3rd, and these were
beaten so loosely, that it is a wonder any Land-Rails were flushed.
I wonder what the proportion of birds was that were not put up, for
the Land-Rail is a hard bird to flush from heavy cover. I saw one
bird in September which had pitched in a bit of barley, too badly
“laid” for the machine to cut it, run out of this, and make its way
in a crouching attitude over the rest of the field, hiding under one of
the barley-sheaves, which lay on the ground, from time to time. This
is only the second time, as far as I remember, that I have seen a live
Corn-Crake on the ground in autumn.
There is evidence that the Wryneck was common in Oxfordshire
at one time, and it was certainly well enough known to be called by
its common name of ‘‘Cuckoo’s Mate,” as well as by another local
name. But it has been almost a rare bird for many years, and we do
not look for its regular arrival in spring. In 1903—a very wet year
—it looked as if the Wryneck was coming back to us. There was a
bird on the outskirts of the village during the first week in May, and
on the 9th I made a note of the fact that we had three, if not four,
about. JI left home for a month three days later, and I never saw or
heard any more of them. The next year I heard one and saw a pair
at the end of April. Since that date I have only noticed occasional
birds. The Nuthatch is another bird which has decreased greatly of
late years. It used to be quite common here, and its sweet whistling
notes were a familiar sound in the early part of the year. It is not
116 THE ZOOLOGIST.
quite extinct, for we have had a pair coming to the drawing-room
window-sill for nuts for some weeks recently (February, 1911). The
only cause for their decrease that I can think of is the great increase
in Starlings, which came to a head a few years ago, and has, I am
glad to say, abated a little lately—oO. V. Apuin (Bloxham, Oxon).
Decrease of Corn-Crake and Wryneck.—Mr. Steele Elliott is, I
believe, quite right as regards the decrease in the numbers of the
Corn-Crake. I can corroborate his statement, so far as this county
is concerned, that thirty years ago a pair at least of Corn-Crakes
were to be found nesting in almost every large meadow. Last
summer I thought I heard the familiar “ crake, crake”’ rather more
frequently than in 1909, and the delay in the hay-harvest about here,
owing to wet weather, I hope may have saved some nests. I put
down the serious diminution of the species principally to two causes:
—(1) the destruction of the birds and their nests by mowing-
machines, and (2) Corn-Crakes being killed by flying against tele-
graph- and telephone-wires. The destruction of bird-life from the
second cause I have mentioned is sadly increasing, owing to the
increase in the number of these wires. On many, if not most, rail-
ways these wires are now erected on both sides of the lines, and
often, being at different heights, form a network of wires eight to
ten feet deep, which it is impossible for wild birds to avoid on foggy
nights. Platelayers find dozens of birds killed from this cause on
their morning patrol of the railways. The time has now come, in
my opinion, when the Corn-Crake and its eggs should be absolutely
protected for, say, a term of five years at least, in the hope of saving
this useful bird from its threatened extermination. Only on Saturday
last (Feb. 17th) a postman not far from here put up a Partridge,
which, swerving from its direct flight, came in contact with telegraph-
wires, and fell dead.
I cannot speak as to the present status of the Wryneck gene-
rally, but it is now an extremely rare bird in this county. The
last occurrence of the species that I have heard of in North
Staffordshire was one picked up at Hllastone on Sept. 26th, 1909,
injured through flying against wires. As this is a purely insecti-
vorous species, it should also, I think, be absolutely protected,
as well as its nest and eggs. In our new Staffordshire Wild Birds ©
Protection Order, which extends protection to all our rarer and
most useful birds, is included a close-season for the Woodcock after
Feb. Ist, and it makes it illegal to take Plover’s eggs after April 7th
in any year. —Joun R. B. Maserrenp (Rosehill, Cheadle, Stafford-
shire).
NOTHS AND QUERIES. 117
“Decrease of the Corn-Crake and Wryneck.”—Referring to Mr.
Steele Hlliott’s remarks under this heading (ante, p. 74), very much
the same state of things prevails in South-west Surrey.
Corn-Crake-—During the last seven or eight years I have per-
sonally only had three records of this bird :—(1) A nest in the village
of Hambledon about the year 1901; from this I have an egg in my
possession. (2) Three specimens were caught alive, but injured by
telegraph-wires, by a man working on the line at Guildford in July,
1902. Ihave one of these birds in my collection. (3) A nest in the
neighbourhood of Dorking in 1907. As to the probable cause of the
scarcity of the Corn-Crake, I can offer no definite reason, but would
suggest a succession of unseasonable summers, and possibly the new
reaping-machines killing the birds, old and young, from their skulking
habits. Also the reclaiming of old haunts for building purposes. It
is many years now since I have heard the familiar cry. Bucknill
(‘Birds of Surrey’), writing in 1900, says:—‘‘In some years it is
very much more common than in others, but over the whole of the
rural district of the county is generally freely distributed.”
Wryneck.—It is worth noting that, although abundant in the
parishes of Milford and Witley, the Wryneck is entirely absent from
Brook (which joins Witley parish), and for the past four years I
have listened in vain for its note. This is all the more extraordinary,
because the bird is so plentiful not only in the parishes named but
throughout the whole south-western portion of Surrey. I can offer
no explanation, for the country in Brook is so well wooded, and
differs in no way from neighbouring villages, being, if possible, even
more rural.—Gorpon DaueuiesH (Midhurst, Sussex).
Immature Glaucous Gull (Larus glaucus)—A specimen was shot
on the shore at Deganwy on Thursday, Feb. 23rd, 1911, and pre-
sented to the Chester Museum by Dr. A. Hamilton. The stomach
contained a few shore-pebbles only. Sex undeterminable. The
donor writes :—‘‘ Since I first saw it, it has always more or less
been amongst the large flock of Herring and other Gulls which
frequent the beach in front of my house, and feed largely on the
garbage deposited there.’—ALFRED NEwsTEAD (Chester).
MOLLUSCA.
A Large Squid on the Northumberland Coast.—A fine example of
the large species of Squid (Sthenoteuthis pteropus, Verr.) was cast
ashore recently on the coast of Northumberland. It was found on
Jan. 8th, 1911, by Mr. H. V. Charlton, on the sandy beach between
118 THE ZOOLOGIST.
Whitley Bay and St. Mary’s Island, about three miles north of the
mouth of the Tyne. Though dead it was quite fresh, and the only
damage it had suffered was the loss of one eye. Mr. Charlton has
presented it to the Hancock Museum, Neweastle-on-Tyne, where it is —
now preserved. It is unnecessary to give many particulars of this
specimen, as a good description of the species has been published
already (Goodrich, Journ. Marine Biol. Assoc. 1892, vol. 2, n.s. p. 314).
There appear to be only about half a dozen records of its occur-
rence on the coasts of Britain, and apparently in only two instances
has the animal been preserved. The last record that I know of
is that of an example thrown up at Redcar in December, 1907,
described and figured in the ‘ Naturalist’ for April, 1908 (Hoyle,
‘A Large Squid at Redcar’’). Our example is of about the average
size. Its total length is 5 ft. 64 in.; from mouth to hinder extremity
of body, 2 ft. 94in.; length of tentacles, 3 f{t—H. Lronarp Gin
(Hancock Museum, Neweastle-on-Tyne).
OB IEMU Of AN 1B NE
Roxtanp Maurice Dixon, B.A.
THE story of a simple, straightforward life (born Nov. 22nd, 1858 ;
died Noy. 26th, 1910) is soon told. Mr. Dixon received his early
education in Bombay, and graduated as B.A. from the University
there in the year 1880, taking Botany and Zoology as his optional
subjects. In the year 1884 he joined the Government Service in the
Educational Department as an Assistant at the Victoria and Albert
Museum, Bombay. The next year his services were placed at the
disposal of the Government of India, and he was attached to the
Indian Museum, Calcutta, to assist Dr. Watt in preparing a collection
of raw products in connection with the London and Bombay Ex-
hibitions. On his return to Bombay he was appointed Assistant
Curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The following year the
Museum was transferred to the Bombay Municipality, and in 1894
he was appointed to act as Curator of the Museum, and at the same
time acted as Professor of Biology at the Elphinstone College, Bom-
bay. In 1902 he was appointed sub pro temp. Curator of the Museum.
In 1905 his services were replaced at the disposal of Government in
the Revenue Department, and Mr. Dixon was transferred to Poona
as Assistant Entomologist to Government. With the inauguration
of the New Agricultural College scheme he was gazetted Professor
of Entomology, and gave lectures in Zoology in addition to his own
duties. He was the first Hxaminer in Entomology for the B. Agr.
Degree to the University of Bombay. These appointments he held
till his death at Khandala.
NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. pills
Mr. Dixon was a man of letters, but essentially a man of science.
He was an authority on the flora and fauna of Western India. He
published several original papers on the less known plants of the
Bombay Presidency. But entomology was his special subject. In
his earnest desire to advance the cause of science he toured all over
India, both officially and unofficially, very often at great personal in-
convenience. He assisted Mr. W. L. Distant with considerable mate-
rial in preparing his volumes on Rhynchota in the ‘ Fauna of British
India Series,’ and also took a special interest in snakes, and made
important contributions to the knowledge of their life-history.
Mr. Dixon was a man of a very kind and gentle nature and
genial temperament. He was loved and admired by all who had
anything to do with him. His sanctum was at all times open to
any student who honestly desired information, while he took almost
a paternal interest in his students.
Mr. Dixon was a member of several scientific and learned
societies, both in Hurope and in India. At congresses of zoolo-
gists or entomologists or botanists in India, Mr. Dixon would be
asked to contribute a paper, and he nearly always had some original
subject to bring forward. Actvs evwm implet non segnibus annis was
Mr. Dixon’s motto, and his life was its concrete example.
JAMES Drxon.
NOLPICIS: YOR NEW “BOOKS.
Convergence in Evolution. By Arntaur Wiuury, D.Sc., F.R.S., &e.
John Murray.
Tuts is an important contribution to evolutionary literature,
and is an example of the Darwinian method applied to the
further development of Darwinian philosophy. Convergence in
evolution is no new term, but it represented more or less an
idea; Dr. Willey has endeavoured in this small volume to make
it a reality. His thesis is ‘‘ that convergence is neither identical
with homoplasy* nor with cenogenesis,t but that it includes these
and something else besides. All homoplasy is convergence, but
all convergence is not homoplasy ; and the same dictum may be
repeated, mutatis mutandis, for cenogenesis.”
* “ Homoplasy,” a term proposed by Sir Ray Lankester to signify simi-
larity of form unaccompanied by community of pedigree.
+ ‘‘ Cenogenesis”’ implies the origin of structural features by relatively
recent adaptation, in contrast with ‘‘ palingenesis,” or primordial adaptation ;
both terms proposed by Prof. Haeckel.
120 THE ZOOLOGIST.
The above quotation, with its formidable though necessary
terminology, may unintentionally give an impression that this
publication is of a more or less scholastic nature, an inference to
be repudiated once for all, as it abounds with interesting observa-
tions, many of which are quite original. The field naturalist
frequently finds an occurrence of which he is quite familiar used
as a philosophical conclusion by another observer in a way that
never appealed to his cognition. Thus, Dr. Willey, observing in
Ceylon the flights of Crows and Flying-foxes, describes these as
instances of ‘‘convergent homing,’ the same trees affording
hospitality in regular alternation to day-flying birds and night-
flying mammals. Another conclusion, well stated, is that ‘‘the
basic quality underlying all animal life is the cryptic, the fear of
the sun. Basking in the sun is a dangerous pastime.” The
chapter on ‘‘ Mimicry and Homoplasy” is fair and candid to
both cautious adherents of the usual explanation of mimicry
and to its advanced apostles. ‘‘ We may safely claim that the
possession by noxious animals of common warning coloration is as
much due to convergence as is the possession by harmless animals of
a common protective coloration ; and both these colour-schemes are
referable to conceivable though indefinite reactions. On the other
hand, the resemblances and associations between palatable and
unpalatable insects are hard to explain on the tropism* theory,
unless we suppose that they arose by ordinary convergence before
advantage was taken of them by natural selection.”
It is, however, impossible to do justice to Dr. Willey’s enuncia-
tion of ‘Convergence in Evolution’ in a short notice like the
present one. A great number of facts and arguments are ad-
duced that can scarcely be appraised at their proper value
except by the few; specialists will, on the contrary, be more at
home with the arguments which apply to their own studies.
This volume is again evidence that students of organic evolu-
tion are ceasing to believe that there is only one path through
the wood.
* « Tropism means the tendéncy to react in a definite manner towards
external stimuli.”
Crown 4to, Cloth, gilt, ges Pp. 144. Price 10s.
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POCKET; BOOK of BRITISH BIRDS
By E. F. M. ELMS.
NFORMATION is given respecting all British birds that breed in
| * these islands, and those that are regular visitors at one time of
| the year or another, with remarks as to a species being resident, inter-
| migratory, or migratory. Hach species is separately treated under
the headings: Haunts, including distribution; Plumage, briefly charac-
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|of species nearly alike; Language, with song and various cries;
Habits; Food; Nidification, with site and materials of nest; and
/ number and description of Eggs.
| ‘THE ENTOMOLOGIST ’
‘'SYNONYMIC LIST OF BRITISH LEPIDOPTERA.
By Ricuarp Sovuty, F.E.S.
For Reference only, 6d., postage 1d.; in duplicate (printed on one
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ioe ae eee asst * bs ca A i, pe rae i
CONTENTS. ee
A Brief Sketch of the Toothed Whales (Odontoceti), Professor McIntosh, uM. D.
LL.D., F.R.S., 81.
An Observational Diary on the Domestic Habits of the Sparrow- ane (Accipiter
nisus), Hdmund Selous, 104.
NovEs AND QUERIES :—
MammatiA.—Variety of the Badger, Alfred Newstead. 111. Grey Seal (Hali-
cherus grypus) in the Dee: a Correction, 7. A. Coward, 111.
Aves.—Man Mobbed by a Ring-Ouzel (Twrdus torqwatus), 111; Are House-
Martins Decreasing? 112, H. P. Butterfield. Distribution of the Linnet,
O. V. Aplin, 112. WHen-Harrier (Circus cyaneus), Alfred Newstead, 113.
Domestic Habits of the Sparrow-Haw, F. C. R. Jourdain, 118. The
Honey-Buzzard (Pernis apivorus), 113; Decrease of the Corn-Crake, Wry-
neck, and Nuthatch, 114; O. V. Aplin. Decrease of Corn-Crake and
Wryneck, John R. B. Masefield, 116. ‘‘ Decrease of the Corn-Crake and
Wryneck,’’ Gordon Dalgliesh, 117.- Immature Glaucous Gull (Larus
glaucus), Alfred Newstead, 117.
Mo.tuvusca.—A Large Squid on the Northumberland Coast, H. Leonard Gill, 117.
Opituary.—Roland Maurice Dixon, B.A., James Dixon, 118.
Notices or New Books, 119-110.
By ARTHUR WILLEY, D.Sc.,Lond.; Hon. M.A. Gantab.; F.R.S.
With Diagrams, Demy 8vo, 7s. 6d. net, Just out.
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forms of Animal life.
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
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‘THE ZOOLOGIST.’
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in ZOOLOGIS T
No. 838.—Apri, 1911.
Tite biaDs OF THAT PORTION OF THE NORTH-
KAST COAST BETWEEN TYNEMOUTH AND
SEATON SLUICE, NORTHUMBERLAND.
By J. M. Cuarurton.
Tue following history of the birds of this small piece of the
Northumberland coast-line is of much interest, not only on
account of the great number of rare species which have been
shot or seen from time to time, but also because of the fact that
this was one of the most favourite haunts of John Hancock, the
distinguished northern ornithologist. Whenever he had the
chance, Hancock used to run down from Neweastle for a few
days, or an afternoon’s shore-shooting along the coast between
Tynemouth and St. Mary’s Island. Most of these excursions
took place between the years 1830 and 1876, from what I can
judge by the records. He was usually accompanied by either
the late Mr. C. M. Adamson or Mr. W. Hewitson, and on several
occasions by Messrs. Philip Stanton, William Kell, and Thomas
Harvey, who were all keen ornithologists. That these expe-
ditions were not fruitless is shown by the large number of
extracts from his ‘ Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland
and Durham,’ which I have collected in this paper.
Many of the records for this district have been of the greatest
interest and value to ornithology. First, as regards Britain :
the first example of the Yellow-browed Warbler shot in the
Zool. 4th ser. vol. XV., April, 1911. L
122 THE ZOOLOGIST.
country was obtained at Hartley by John Hancock, and the
only example of the white-headed form of the Long-tailed Tit
(Acredula caudata) obtained in England was the one found
dead at Tynemouth in 1852. Secondly, with reference to
Northumberland, the species which have occurred within this
locality and stand alone for the county are the Yellow-browed
Warbler, Rustic Bunting, Pectoral Sandpiper, Avocet, and
Levantine Shearwater. One of the two Golden Orioles obtained
in Northumberland was shot at Tynemouth; the fourth and
last example of the Wood-Lark was procured in this district ;
one of the few Hoopoes was shot at Cullercoats ; John Hancock
mentions that the only occurrence, to his knowledge, of the
Grey Plover in summer plumage was procured here; the second
example of the Spotted Redshank was got here in 1831; the
occurrence of the Iceland Gull is one of the few for the county.
The natural hybrid between the Reed and Yellow Buntings is an
unique occurrence, and the record of the Chiffchaff in winter is
also of great interest, and is the only one for the county. This
latter would not be of so much interest were it not for the fact
that the district is so little suited to the habitation of such a
frail bird in winter, when insect-life is almost entirely absent,
This species frequently passes the winter in the more sheltered
southern counties of England, but its occurrence so far north is
extraordinary. The first record of the White Wagtail for the
county was shot here.
As I have before stated, the district is very unsheltered, and
affords but little seclusion to any birds which may visit it,
especially of the land species. This accounts for the fact that
most of the birds mentioned in the following pages have only
been passing on migration, and were not making any stay in
the neighbourhood. The only places which offer shelter to
birds of retiring habits belonging to the Passerine species are
Whitley, Briar, and Holywell denes, situated a short distance
from each other, and the last two in direct communication with
the sea. The rest of the country is almost devoid of trees, but
here and there a few isolated clumps stand bare and rigid,
facing the cutting blasts of the north-east wind. The only
sheets of fresh water are at Whitley Dene and Tynemouth Park,
the former, once used as a reservoir to supply the district, being
BIRDS OF NORTH-EAST NORTHUMBERLAND. 123
the larger. The hollow in which the water stands was formerly
quarried out, and one side is almost perpendicular, which
shelters the water from the wind. On the other side short,
stumpy trees—elders (which tree grows better than any in this
district)—srow down to the water’s edge, which is shallow.
This would be a very good place for wildfowl in winter, but
unfortunately there are several houses on both sides, and few
birds are bold enough to venture near, except perhaps an occa-
sional Snipe or Wild Duck.
With the exception of the three valleys before mentioned the
eround is flat and uninteresting, and where it is not built over
is under cultivation for the greater part. But in this district, as
in all others, the increasing population demands an extension of
the villages, and the number of houses has increased of late
tremendously. This accounts for the steady decrease in the
number of bird visitors from year to year. At the present day,
birds which were fairly common in John Hancock’s time as
breeding species are now never seen, such as the Tree-Sparrow
and Quail; and it is very seldom that the large numbers of
wildfowl spoken of in former days are observed. Soon, it is
to be feared, a future generation will smile incredulously when
we talk of the birds to be seen now. The bird-life there is
a thing of the past, as is the case in many of the former haunts
of the feathered world ; therefore, this paper is not so much a
history or description of the birds to be found there at present, |
but a record of former days. Still, something can yet be done
to retain an occasional visitor to the coast, and this would
be to stop the shooting of birds—at any rate, on Sundays—and
more especially at St. Mary’s Island, whither numbers of men
resort, usually on the day of ‘“‘ rest,” to slaughter anything, from
a Pipit to a Cormorant, which they come across. Another fact
which prevents the stay of any shore-bird in the vicinity is that
the coast has no flats or slakes on which wading species usually
feed. The nearest thing of the kind was formerly Jarrow Slake,
but this does not come within the radius of the paper, being
some miles up the Tyne, and is now, of course, owing to in-
creased shipping, ‘‘no more.” Many of the birds formerly shot
on this coast would be passing to or from these flats.
That bird-life was plentiful in former years along the coast is
L2
124 THE ZOOLOGIST.
well shown by an extract from Mr. C. M. Adamson’s book, ‘ Some
more Scraps about Birds’ :—‘“‘ On the 12th Sept. 1843, I walked
from Tynemouth soon after five o’clock a.m. to Hartley Island.
There had been a quantity of rain, and it was very misty. On
Whitley Sands a young Greenshank ran out from among some
seaweed which had been walled up by the tide, and was endea-
vouring to fly away when I shot it. I saw some Dunlins on
some wet mud, and shot into a flock of them, killing two;
another bird fell wounded, which I followed, and was pleased to
find a Little Stint. I afterwards saw six birds, which I thought
were Dunlins, feeding in a pool of rain-water high up on the
sands, which part is only covered at spring-tides. I killed three
of them, and was again pleased to find them Little Stints; the
others settled again amongst Dunlins, when the difference in size
was easily to be seen.”’
Mr. Duncan has also kindly supplied me with a list of the
different species he shot in a single day (Aug. 16th, 1866) at
St. Mary’s Island :—Sheld-Duck, Teal, Curlew, Whimbrel,
Oystercatcher, Ringed Dotterel, Redshank, Knot, Common Tern,
Sandwich Tern, Great Black-backed Gull—thirty specimens in
all. This is a very large ‘‘bag’’ for such a place as this, and it
goes to prove that birds were not uncommon here in former
years. Mr. Duncan shot with a single-barrelled muzzle-loader
on this occasion, from daylight until nearly dark.
Yet even in recent years, during very severe weather, num-
bers of birds have been seen in a single day. As an example, I
will take a spell of very stormy weather which was experienced
between Oct. 24th and 28th, 1909. On the 26th my brother
observed the following birds:—Ten Golden-eyes, a Great Northern
Diver, five Common Skuas, all the commoner Gulls, a Gannet,
flocks of Dunlins, Purple Sandpipers and Ringed Plover, several
Redshanks, Snow-Buntings, and a Brent Goose.
I will now proceed to trace the coast-line. A few hundred
yards from the mouth of the Tyne the land suddenly takes a
sweep inland, forming what is called Percy Bay, at the extremity
of which are what are known as the “short sands.” On the
cliffs above this was formerly situated Willy Dean’s cottage, in
which Thomas Bewick lodged in 1801. The promontory to the
north of this bay is known as Sharpness Point. The coast at
o ViNages. = roekg ;
Plamlahtoug.
126 THE ZOOLOGIST.
_ Tynemouth is very high and rocky, but about half a mile from
- the mouth of the Tyne the cliffs become lower, and composed of
soil and clay and covered by grass, gradually sloping to the
shore, a long stretch of sand being exposed at low tide. These
conditions prevail for about half a mile, until Cullercoats is
reached, where the banks become steeper and rocky. The land
here goes out into a point, known as George’s Point, which has
formerly extended for a quarter of a mile ovt to sea, as the
rocks at the extremity testify, and part of which are known as
the ‘‘ Bear’s Back,” owing to their form. This point is, unlike
any other part of this coast, composed of an outcrop of yellow
sandstone. The coast-line then turns inwards, forming a small
bay, at the extremity of which is situated the village of Culler-
coats. ,
During a high tide in stormy weather the water in this bay
is comparatively smooth, and consequently birds hard pressed
by the wind and waves seek refuge in it. On account of this,
and also because numbers of small fish frequent the waters
here, there is generally a bird visitor to be seen swimming
~ about and diving in all conditions of weather, even at the
present time.
The shore then extends outwards, forming another point,
which is bold and rocky; then gradually the rocks extend
inland, forming what are known as the “ Table Rocks.” Now
the cliffs, which have attained the height of about forty feet,
disappear at the town of Whitley, and low grassy links and
sand-banks take their place, with a stretch of sand about three
hundred yards wide before them. In former days this was a
favourite resting-place for the smaller migrants, among the
clumps of gorse, but now that promenades have been built along
the coast the birds prefer to move on without resting. About
half a mile along a small stream empties itself into the sea;
this is known as the ‘‘ Briar Burn.” If we follow it up for
a short distance, as many a tiny bird migrant has done before,
we will find that it runs through a small valley studded with
clumps of gorse, thorns, and briars, from which latter it takes
its name. In spring it presents a very pretty sight, and one
which seems quite foreign to the adjacent surroundings of bricks
and mortar which have sprung up in the last year or two.
BIRDS OF NORTH-HAST NORTHUMBERLAND. 127
About five years ago I used to come here daily during the spring
migration, and note the new arrivals as I came upon them
either skulking in the gorse-bushes, or uttering their feeble
notes from the topmost sprays of the thorns. To me there is
nothing in the observation of bird-life to compare with the
pleasure and anticipation of looking out for and recognizing
each new species as it arrives. In those times the dene had a
notice at the bottom and top of it: ‘‘ Trespassers will be prose-
cuted, and stray dogs shot’’; and on each side: ‘‘ The game
and shooting rights over this land are strictly preserved. By
order.” What irony the latter is! I think in all my visits
I have seen but two Partridges and an occasional Snipe on the
land! But as far as the wild birds were concerned, this state of
affairs was ideal. Whether the notices frightened them, or they
did not wish to go, I do not know, but despite the fact that
a public footpath ran across it at one point, I never saw anybody
wandering off the beaten track.
The sand-banks prevail for about a mile and a quarter,
the coast gradually turning seawards, and forming a point, at
the extremity of which is a small island, by name Bates’, or
St. Mary’s. This is not an island, strictly speaking, as the
water only surrounds it at high tide. This spot is mentioned
more perhaps than any other in the following paper, which is
due to the fact that many of the birds passing along the coast
touch at this place, and are thereby procured. There is a space
of about a hundred yards between the island and the mainland,
and birds passing fly through this gap. Here butts are formed
at low tide, in which the gunners sit, now generally in vain. As
this is one of the most commanding points on that part of the
coast, it is in the direct line of flight of birds passing north or
south. During later years a large lighthouse has been erected
on the island, but very few migrants have been observed at it,
owing, doubtless, to the fact that the duration of the flashes of
light is too short, and that during the periods of darkness the
birds probably pass on. St. Mary’s Island may well claim to
have a very remarkable record of rare birds procured or observed
on or near it. For over a hundred years it has been the more
or less constant haunt of one or more men with guns. To this
fact the island owes its great number of records, for there has
128 THE ZOOLOGIST.
always been someone on the spot, and within a short distance
of one of the most competent ornithologists who have ever
lived, namely, John Hancock. If ever any bird appeared which
was ‘“‘out of the ordinary,” it was sent straight to him or
Mr. Adamson, and although they probably often received
common species to identify, yet a rare bird was sure to have
careful and accurate attention. Hver since the building of a
house by John Ewen, some forty years ago, on the island, the
shooting was on the wane. More men came to shoot, and birds
learnt to shun the locality. On the erection of the lighthouse
about 1896 it was for the greater part entirely spoilt. The
birds avoided the ‘‘ gap,” being frightened by the unnatural-
looking object close by, and preferred to pass on the seaward
side. A year or so ago the island was connected to the main-
land by telephone, and the wire across the passage is a still
further cause of fear to the birds. They see the wire before
them, and rise up to avoid it, thereby passing out of range
of the shooters. Birds have several times struck against this,
and a Tern on one occasion flew straight into it and fell dead ;
Oystercatchers and Gulls have also been seen to stun them-
selves against it. Yet even now the commoner shore-birds are
seen, and so they will be as long as birds migrate; for they
must pass up and down the coast, and some must go by
St. Mary’s Island. But will they stop to rest as in former
days, or pass close to the shore? I would hardly think so!
There is one thing which will testify to the frequency of the
visits of shooters more than anything. This is that the shot
used to be washed up by the tide in handfuls, and some even
assert that John Ewen collected it and sold it on the island,
which is entirely incorrect, although many of the shooters made
use of it again for their muzzle-loaders. Liven in later years
my brother has frequently seen small quantities lying at high-
tide mark, or in the crevices in rocks.
Opposite the island a small stream runs out, and some yards
from its mouth it has opened out and formed a sort of tiny
marsh. Occasionally Snipe and even an old duck used to
resort here to feed as dusk came on, and a sudden ap-
proach over one of the sandhills close by often resulted in a
shot.
BIRDS OF NORTH-EAST NORTHUMBERLAND. 129
Proceeding from Bates’ Island the coast-line becomes high
and rocky, and two small bays are carved out in if, with a
stretch of sand at their extremities. Thus three bold points
are formed, which jut out some distance into the sea, and each
has its stretch of seaweed-covered rocks before and on both
sides of it. On the cliffs at the north-west corner of the most
northern of these two bays is the village of Seaton Sluice.
Here an artificial passage has been cut to afford ingress to
boats up the Holywell Burn, when the village was a flourishing
port many years ago. The natural mouth of the stream runs
into the sea a little further along the coast. These two passages
form an island, on which were built one or two houses of the
village. The water at the mouth of this burn is the haunt of
any ducks which may be about, as they feed on the substance
brought down by the stream.
Holywell Dene is the largest valley in the district, and
extends for about two miles inland, being about four hundred
yards wide at the broadest part. The stream, which in former
years was pure water, is now stained a filthy brown by the mine
workings at the top. If we follow it up from Seaton Sluice,
after leaving the village, we find the banks very low, and the field
by its side full of small pools of thick black water. To this
Snipe and other waders have been known to resort, and by the
spongy nature of the ground there ought to be a sufficiency of
food for them. About a quarter of a mile above the town the
valley becomes wooded, and continues so to the source of the
stream. The trees are chiefly beech, some of them very fine
Specimens, and during summer they afford ample shelter to
such small birds as may venture there. Unfortunately at that
time of year this valley is the constant haunt of ‘‘trippers,”’
chiefly on Saturdays and Sundays, who climb trees, harry the
nests, trap and snare the old birds when possible, and make
things generally disagreeable for them. Once things were diffe-
rent, and one could wander through the woods in the height of
summer, meeting with no life but that which flew or crawled.
On the right of the dene, standing among some more beeches,
is Delaval Hall, the former seat of the family of that name. If
there is ever any large bird, such as a Buzzard or Eagle, in the
neighbourhood, it seeks the seclusion of these woods, only to be
130 THE ZCOLOGIST.
ruthlessly hunted out and shot! Near the top of the dene lies
the pit-village of Holywell; through this runs the high road,
which I have taken as my western boundary. ‘This passes
through Earsdon, Monkseaton, and thence behind Whitley and
Cullercoats to Tynemouth.
To sum up the geographical details, I must mention a rather
important feeding-ground of the avifauna of the district. This
is a large refuse-heap in the fields of Fenwick Wilson, Esq., of
Marden, a half mile or so behind Cullercoats. ‘To it large
numbers of birds used to, and sometimes now, resort, especially
in winter when natural food is scarce. Starlings and Gulls are
usually the commonest, while in spring and autumn large
numbers of small migrants, such as Whinchats, Wheatears, and
Pipits, frequent it and feed on the myriads of insects which are
to be found in abundance on the decaying offal.
This is the area, the ornithology of which I write, and,
considering its small extent and mostly unfavourable nature,
the number and interest of its bird-visitors are, at any rate,
remarkable.
It will be noticed that, wherever it is possible, I have given
the earliest record I can find for the spezies, but, of course, as
regards the very common birds this is unnecessary.
It will also be observed that the records of the smaller
Passerine species, especially the Warblers, are not numerous.
In all probability they have occurred on migration, but as this
usually takes place at night they have passed on, and were out
of the district by daybreak, especially as such little shelter is
afforded to them. :
For the past twelve years I have kept a close and careful
log-book of the various occurrences in the district, especially
with regard to the arrival and departure of the migrants, and
wherever possible I have given the average date of arrival and
departure of the migratory species.
I have culled some of my information from J. Hancock's
‘Catalogue of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham,’ and
besides that from the following: Selby’s ‘ Catalogue of Birds’ of
the same two counties; ‘ Catalogue of the Collection of Birds at
the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-on-Tyne’ ; ‘ A History of Tyne-
mouth, Cullercoats, and Whitley Bay, Northumberland,’ by W.
BIRDS OF NORTH-EAST NORTHUMBERLAND. 131
Tomlinson, Esq. (and I must thank the author for the kindness he
showed me in endeavouring to find out some information with
regard to the birds of the district). Two of my most fruitful
sources of information were C. M. Adamson’s books, ‘ Scraps
about Birds’ and ‘More Scraps.’ The author of these last
books was one of the most competent and careful ornithologists
of the North of England, and his special study was the changes
of the plumages of birds, chiefly of the wading species.
Besides the foregoing, many valuable notes have been ob-
tained from private sources, and I must especially thank the
following gentlemen for their kindness in providing me with
information :—Mr. Robert Duncan (taxidermist), Newcastle-on-
Tyne, who was a continual visitor to St. Mary’s Island in former
years, and has procured many very valuable birds there, as will
be seen from my paper; Herbert Coxon, Esq., Newcastle-on-
Tyne, for allowing me to examine his collection of stuffed birds,
in which are several examples of much importance; Mr. J.
Ewen, Whitley Bay, for kindly allowing me to examine his
stuffed specimens of Sand-Grouse, Peregrine Falcon, &c., which
he obtained on St. Mary’s Island when he was in residence
there; Mr. W. J. Monk, who was light-keeper on the island
shortly after the lighthouse was installed, and remained there
some nine years, for several notes on birds which he observed
during his stay; Mr. G. Wright (taxidermist), Whitley Bay,
for supplying me with information regarding several rare speci-
mens which have passed through his hands; Mr. H. B. Hodg-
son, Whitley Bay, for several interesting facts relative to the
breeding of certain species within the district; Mr. William
Richardson (taxidermist), Seaton Delaval, for much information
regarding occurrences at Holywell and Delaval; Mr. J. Taylor,
formerly taxidermist, Cullercoats, for notes concerning the occur-
rence of the Bittern, &c.
(To be continued.
132 THE ZOOLOGIST.
THE PHARYNGEAL TEETH OF FISHES.
By Conone C. E. SuHepaHerp (Indian Army).
(Continued from vol. xiv. p. 425.)
In the Gadide we have a family that is well furnished with
pharyngeal teeth, and may begin with one of the commonest of
this family.
Gapus MorrHua. The Cod.
The first branchial arch has on the outside edge eighteen
horny gill-rakers on the cerato- and hypo-branchials, with nine
on the epibranchial ; the longest ones, the seventh and eighth of
the first series, are about one-half of the depth of the gills just
below them. As they progress towards the front of the mouth
they gradually dwindle in size till they become rudimentary.
The inner side of the first arch and both sides of the second and
third arches, and the outer side of the fourth arch, carry teeth
bearing tubercles so placed as to fit alternately into each other
when the gill-slit is closed. The upper pharyngeal teeth consist
of one patch of elongated shape, attached to the end of the
second epibranchial, and a roughly quadrilateral shaped plate,
but really consisting of two pieces, on the ends of the third
and fourth epibranchials on each side. The teeth on these are
cardiform, those nearest the cesophagal opening being much
stronger than the others. ‘he teeth of the lower pharyngeals
are more finely cardiform, but with stronger cardiform teeth
on the inner margins, where the two plates of the lower
pharyngeals meet in a broad V, although they do not touch
each other in the median line. It would not be out of place
here to consider the class of food that the pharyngeal teeth of
the Cod has to deal with. In the southern part of the North
Sea they feed mostly on crustaceans. These were found in
83 per cent. of stomachs examined, and consist of Crabs, in-
cluding the Hermit-Crab, and Shrimps and Prawn-like animals.
Fish were found in 85 per cent., the greater Sand Launce and
the young of the Herring, the Sand Dab, and the Whiting, and
other fish as well are brought into requisition. Polychete
THH PHARYNGEAL TEETH OF FISHES. 133
worms were found in 16 per cent., principally the Sea-Mouse
(Aphrodite aculeata). Mollusca, chiefly Whelks. *
GapbUS MERLANGUS. The Whiting.
The horny gill-rakers of the first branchial arch in this
fish begin at the angle; there are none on the epibranchial,
they number nineteen on the cerato- and hypo-branchial. The
largest ones are nearly the same length as the depth of the gill
below them; the gill-rakers are toothed on their inner face.
The gill-rakers on the other arches are tuberculous, and they
carry teeth. They fit into each other alternately, and form a
close filter. The upper pharyngeal teeth appear as two circular
patches of cardiform teeth, consisting actually of three pieces,
but the joint of the lower piece hardly shows; those on each
side nearer the middle line are more pronounced than the
others. The lower pharyngeal teeth, also cardiform, are in a
broad V-shaped patch, separated down the middle by a line of
mucous membrane, and here, again, the teeth along the sides
nearest the middle line are bigger than the others; there are
two rows of such larger teeth on each side. The food of the
Whiting consists of crustaceans, other fish, annelids, and star-
fishes.
Gapus metirinus. The Haddock.
This fish has on the epibranchial two, and on the cerato-
hypobranchial of the first branchial arch twenty-three horny
gill-rakers, but they are not toothed. The remainder of the
gill-rakers are elongated tubercles with minute teeth on them;
they fii more nearly opposite to each other than alternately,
thus leaving a large opening for water to pass through to the
gills. The upper pharyngeal teeth are cardiform, with the more
prominent ones along the tops of the three patches that contain
them. The lower pharyngeal teeth are in two patches, forming
a narrower V than in the last fish mentioned. The lower apex
of the V is separated by a line of mucous membrane, and the
larger cardiform teeth on the inner edges of the apex are arranged
in clumps at the apex rather than in two rows as in the Whiting.
* The above percentage of food found in the stomachs of Cods is taken
from the information posted up in the ‘ Fisheries Investigations’’ Cabinet
in the Central Hall of the British Museum of Natural History, where speci-
mens of some of the food animals are also shown.
134 THE ZOOLOGIST.
Meruuccius vuueaRis. The Hake.
This fish is supplied with a formidable array of teeth along
the jaws, and showing externally ; it is likewise furnished with
a liberal supply in the buccal cavity. The gill-rakers of the
first cerato-branchial are short, stout, and horny, and carry
teeth ; there were seven on the left side and eight on the right
in the specimen examined. The longest of them, the second of
the series, is about two-thirds of the gill length immediately
under it. Along the hypobranchial of the first arch the gill-
rakers are turned into a number of flat plates bearing minute
teeth, very close together, but not touching; thirteen of these
were counted. ‘T'wo gill-rakers, horny and toothed, grow on
the first epibranchial, and above them two flat tubercles, also
toothed. The inner edge of the first arch has upstanding gill-
rakers studded with teeth. The inner and outer edges of the
second and third arches and the outer side of the fourth arch
have lumpy tubercles in the centre part, and up to the angle
beyond that they merge into flat tubercles; all are tooth-
bearing. The upper pharyngeal teeth consist of a patch of
very fine cardiform teeth on the second epibranchial, with two
patches of strongly built cardiform teeth on the third and fourth
epibranchials. The difference of size and strength in the first
and second and third of these patches is in strong contrast.
The lower pharyngeal teeth are on two plates placed well forward
in the gullet, and carry well-defined cardiform teeth with the
usual very distinct rows on the inner margins of the plates. The
ends of the plates nearer the cesophagus form two white flat
surfaces devoid of teeth. The tubercles above mentioned and
the pharyngeal teeth are white, and make a marked contrast to
the black lining membrane of the buccal cavity.
Brosmius BrosmME. The Torsk. Fig. 1 (p. 135).
The outer margin of the first arch has nine flat tubercle gill-
rakers on the cerato-hypobranchials, and only two very small
ones on the epibranchial; the inner margin has seven smaller
tubercle gill-rakers. All the above carry minute cardiform
teeth which curve inwards. The inner and outer upper surfaces
of the second, third, and the outer side of the fourth arch bear
tubercle gill-rakers, and these all carry teeth similar to those of
THE PHARYNGHAL TEETH OF FISHES, 135
Fig. 1—Brosmius BrosME. The Torsk,
Fig. 2.—MoLvA ELONGATA.
Fic. 3.—PHYCIS MEDITERRANEUS. .
Fig. 4.—ONUS COMMUNIS.
Fig. 5.—GADUS POUTASSOU.
136 THE ZOOLOGIST.
the first arch. The upper pharyngeal teeth show as two patches.
The second epibranchial terminates at its upper extremity behind
a narrow bone carrying a patch of cardiform pharyngeal teeth ;
the third and fourth epibranchials similarly join on to a broadly
oval-shaped pharyngeal bone that is covered with cardiform
teeth, those on its lower portion being stronger, and with a more
decided backward curve than those in the upper portion. The
lower pharyngeal teeth are in two obtuse-angled triangular
patches, studded, but not very thickly so, with cardiform teeth
with the points directed backwards, the triangles lying across
the mouth transversely, with a broad mucous division between
them. The curve of the upper and lower pharyngeal teeth
permits of the smooth passage of articles of food towards the
cesophagus, but immediately checks any attempted retrograde
movement, as can be tested by passing the finger along in either
direction.
Mouva ELoNGATA. Fig. 2 (p. 1385).
This tish, of the same family as Molva vulgaris, also called
the Ling, has ten flat teeth bearing tubercles as gill-rakers on
the cerato-hypobranchial of the first arch, with two on the epi-
branchial—these on its outer aspect ; the inner aspect has a few
very flat ones. On the second arch along the cerato-branchial
the tubercles are confluent on the outer side; the hypobranchial
is bare of tubercles. The third cerato-branchial has a few flat
tubercles along its surface, both inside and outside. The fourth
arch has a roughened skin along it. The upper pharyngeal
teeth show as two segments studded with cardiform teeth. The
upper one is attached to the second epibranchial, the lower to
the third and fourth. The lower pharyngeal teeth are in two
long triangular patches, the teeth on the marginal portions next
the csophagus being larger than the rest. The triangles are
set with their length in the direction of the length of the mouth,
and are distinctly separated by a mucous membrane division.
PHYCIS MEDITERRANEUS. Fig. 3 (p. 185).
A relative of Phycis blennoides, the Greater Forkbeard
(Couch), found on the English coast. The Mediterranean
species has eleven horny upstanding gill-rakers in the cerato-
hypobranchial of the first arch, which diminish in size till the
THE PHARYNGEAL TEETH OF FISHES. 137
last ones are very minute; they carry teeth on their inner
margins. On the inner face of the first branchial arch there
are tubercles, as also on the inner and outer faces of the second
and third arches, and on the outer face of the fourth arch. The
upper pharyngeal teeth show as two patches, the upper a small
narrow patch with small cardiform teeth, the lower of the two
as a circular patch with cardiform teeth specially strong at the
lower portion of the patch. The lower pharyngeal teeth are
in two triangular shaped patches, with a row of strong cardiform
teeth along the margins on each side at the middle of the mouth,
the other teeth being smaller. A narrow division runs up be-
tween the two patches of teeth.
Onus communis. Fig. 4 (p. 185).
This fish has seven tubercular gill-rakers on the first arch
cerato-hypobranchials; these carry teeth. The inside of the
first arch and the other arches have tubercles on them which
are toothed. The upper pharyngeal teeth, which are cardiform,
are in two patches, with a third small narrow piece on the
inner edge of the third epibranchial, which has villiform teeth.
The lower pharyngeals in two patches have minute cardiform
teeth, which are more prominent along the middle portion of
the mouth. The two patches meet across the middle of the
mouth at the anterior ends.
Onus tTRictrRATUS. The Three-bearded Rockling.
The upper and lower pharyngeals are as in the last men-
tioned, the junction of the two portions being more complete in
this fish. The food of the Rocklings is mostly composed of
crustaceans ; they also eat annelids, starfigh, and other smaller
fishes than themselves.
Gapus poutassou. Fig. 5 (p. 135).
This fish has twenty-three horny upstanding gill-rakers from
the angle of the branchial arch to the end of the first hypo-
branchial arch, the one at the angle being the longest, and its
length nearly one-fourth of the length from its base to the end
of the hypobranchial of the same arch; these gill-rakers
diminish in size fairly evenly till the last minute one is
reached ; there are six on the epibranchial. The inside of the
Zool. 4th ser. vol. XV., April, 1911. M
138 THE ZOOLOGIST.
first, both sides of the second and third, and the outside of the
fourth arch all carry small upstanding tubercles, which are
toothed. When the arches are closed together the tubercles
butt one against the other, and so do not form such a perfect
filter as they would if they fitted alternately. The upper
pharyngeal teeth show as three patches, and have strongly
cardiform teeth in the lower portion. The lower pharyngeal
teeth are in two triangular portions, with strong cardiform
teeth along the middle portions of the triangles. The lining
membrane of the mouth of this fish and its tongue are black.
URALEPTUS MARALDII.
This fish has minute cardiform teeth for the lower pharyn-
geals, with a stouter row towards the middle of the mouth, as
recorded for the fish last mentioned. The upper pharyngeals
have stout cardiform teeth at the lower portion.
CARANGIDA.
Licuta amia. Fig. 1 (p. 189).
Along the cerato-branchial of the first arch there are, count-
ing the one at the angle, seven hard bony gill-rakers, the inner
sides of which are lined with villiform teeth ; they decrease in
size as they get more forward in the mouth; beyond the gill-
rakers are two horny patches, hardly protruding above the level
surface of the arch, covered with villiform teeth. There is one
similar gill-raker on the epibranchial; this also has four horny
patches covered with villiform teeth. On the outside of the
angle formed by the cerato- and epi-branchials there are granular
asperities. The outer and inner sides of the second cerato-
branchial has a skin covered with fine villiform teeth. The outer
side of the third cerato-branchial has the same kind of skin, but
on the inner side it grows into flat tubercles, also covered with
villiform teeth. The epibranchial of the second arch finishes up
with an irregular shaped patch of villiform teeth, much longer
than its breadth ; this is the topmost one of the upper pharyngeal
teeth. It shows clearly in the illustration. There are patches
of skin with villiform teeth coming down along the epibranchial,
stronger in its upper part, and diminishing in size as they
approach the angle. These also can be seen in the illustration
THE PHARYNGEAL THETH OF FISHES. 139
CARANGIDAS.
Fig. 2.—CaraNnx TRacHURUS. The Horse-Mackerel.
Fig. 8.—TrEmNopon saLTaTor. The Skipjack.
Fig. 4.SERIOLA DUMERILII. Yellow-tail.
M 2,
140 THE ZOOLOGIST.
on the left side of the gullet. The rest of the upper pharyngeal
teeth are two patches on the ends of the third and fourth epi-
branchials, one a triangular patch with rounded angles; the
second and lower one of these two is roughly ovoid in shape.
The lower pharyngeal bones carry two elongated patches of
villiform teeth. The proportion of the length to the breadth of
these patches is nearly 3% to 1.
CaRanx TRAcHURUS. The Horse-Mackerel. Fig. 2 (p. 139).
The first branchial arch carries a number of fine horny
gill-rakers, the one at the angle being the longest, and its length
is contained about three times in the length from the angle to
the junction of the hypo- with the basi-branchials. There
are forty-five of these gill-rakers along the cerato- and hypo-
branchials of the first arch, and sixteen on the epibranchial.
They are smooth to the touch at their tips, but a little rough
near the base. ‘The inner side of the first, both sides of the
second and third, and the outer aspect of the fourth arches
carry short gill-rakers that fit into each other alternately and
form a fairly close filtering process. They are covered with a
rough surface, palpable on drawing the tip of the finger from the
back forwards. The upper pharyngeal teeth show as two
separate patches, with a number of small, sharp, cardiform
teeth embedded in mucous membrane, each tooth fairly distinct
from its neighbour. The ends of these teeth have a downward
curve, and are very palpable if the finger is brought the reverse
way to which food would pass in swallowing. The lower pharyn-
geal teeth are on two long narrow patches of an elongated tri-
angular shape, with villiform teeth at the anterior part, but
more cardiform in the posterior part; they are embedded in
mucous membrane, with the points projecting. The food of
this fish consists largely of small crustaceans.
TEMNODON sALTATOR. The Skipjack. Fig. 3 (p. 139).
This fish has but few horny gill-rakers on the outer-side of
the first branchial arch. The one at the angle is the longest,
and is contained about five times in the distance from the angle
to the basi-branchial. Counting the one at the angle, there are
nine giil-rakers along the cerato-branchial, the hypo-branchial
THE PHARYNGEAL TEETH OF FISHES. 141
of the first arch is devoid of gill-rakers, and there are only two
on the epibranchial. These gill-rakers are smooth to the touch,
The other arches are wanting in gill-rakers. The upper pharyn-
geal teeth show as four distinct patches—one long narrow one
at the summit of the second epibranchial, a larger one at the
end of the third epibranchial, with a smaller patch along the
same towards the angle, and a fourth attached to the fourth epi-
branchial. The lower pharyngeals are two long narrow patches.
From the forward end of these along the basi-branchials there
- are a pair of patches of villiform teeth between the junctions of
the basi-branchials with the second and third hypobranchials,
the patches meeting close together in the median line. Another
pair of patches, forward of the last two, starting from the junc-
tion of the second hypo- with the basi-branchial, are carried
along to the junction of the hypo-hyal with the os glossa. These
have a smooth portion in the middle line; they are covered with
villiform teeth.
SeRI0oLA DuMERILII. Yellow-tail. Fig. 4 (p. 139).
This fish has twelve horny gill-rakers along the outside of
the first cerato-hypobranchials ; the longest one at the angle is
contained some five times in the length of these two bones.
There are three on the epibranchial. These gill-rakers have
minute teeth on them. The inner side of the first arch has
conspicuous tubercle gill-rakers on it, and there are very small
inconspicuous ones on the inner sides of the second and third
arches, with none at all on the outer sides. The surface of the
skin of the arches is covered with a roughness that can be felt by
the finger if passed over it in the direction against the swallow.
The upper pharyngeal teeth show as three patches of teeth:
sharp little teeth if the finger is drawn against them, smooth if
the finger is passed in the direction of the swallow. The lower
pharyngeals carry two long narrow patches of téeth; minute
villiform teeth are found along the upper surface of the basi-
branchials, and continue to the tip of the tongue.
Navucrates puctor. The Pilot-fish.
The upper pharyngeal teeth are cardiform but minute, and
so are the lower pharyngeal teeth.
142 THE ZOOLOGIST.
THE DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH ANNELIDS.
By tHe Rev. Hinperic FRIEND.
By Annelids, as understood in the series of notes which
follows, we mean those earthworms and fresh-water worms
which are usually known as Oligochets, or worms with few
bristles, to distinguish them from the Polychets, which are
usually marine worms. As I am preparing a Monograph of
British Earth and Water Worms for the Ray Society, it seems
desirable that we should take a survey of our present state of
knowledge on the subject. As such a survey will require a
considerable space, it is thought best to begin with the larger
forms, which have been more fully -studied than the aquatic
annelids, and the whiteworms or Enchytreids. In the present
paper I must be content to supply a list of those species of
earthworms which are now known to occur in various parts of
the British Isles. When Darwin published his work on ‘ Vege-
table Mould,’ it was assumed that about ten species were in-
digenous. By steady work during the past twenty years I have
been able to quadruple that number, so that to-day we have
a total of something like forty species, subspecies, or well-
marked varieties.
As earthworms are most readily distinguished by the position
of the girdle, I supply the numbers of the segments occupied
thereby, counting from the head, and reckoning the peristomium
(which has no sete) as the first segment. As nearly all earth-
worms have special pores, tubercula, or bands on the under
surface of the girdle, I give these also. When they extend over
consecutive segments, as in all the known species of Lwmbricus,
the band is distinguished by the numbers joined with a hyphen.
When, as in Aporrectodea, there is not a band, but pores on
: 28." 38) eae
alternate segments, a colonis used. Thus aon indicates that
the girdle begins on the 28th, and extends to the 33rd segment,
DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH ANNELIDS. 143
while the tubercula form a band on the four innermost of the
girdle segments. On the other hand, the symbol Ao
would show that, while the girdle occupied the 29th to the 37th
segments, the tubercula do not form a continuous band, but
consist of pores on alternate segments.
Our earthworms were formerly arranged under three genera :
Lumbricus, Allolobophora, and Allwrus. When the internal
structure came to be studied, however, it was found that the
large genus Allolobophora included such a heterogeneous assem-
blage that further division was necessary. I shall be content
with the briefest possible notes on these matters, as these papers
are not intended for a systematic study of worms, but as a guide
to the knowledge of their distribution.
I. Lumsricus.
Beginning with the oldest, best known, and most widely
distributed group, we find that there are five true species of
Lumbricus at present known in the British Isles. Judging from
certain facts we ought to find three other species, but so far,
if they exist, they have eluded our search. This group is known
by the colour, which is more or less purple and iridescent, but,
as this character is also found among the Dendrobenas, it is
well to notice the fact that the head is inserted into the first
segment (or peristomium) by means of a backward growth which
extends to the intersegmental groove. In other words, the
prostomium entirely divides the peristomium, while the setzx
are always strictly paired. The male pores are on the 15th
Segment, with or without papille, the tail is usually flattened,
and the girdle covers six segments (except in L. papillosus),
while the tubercula form a band on the innermost four.
32 — 37
1. Lumbricus terrestris, L. 33—3, The Common Harthworm.
2. L. rubellus, Hoff. = ~
last. ,
The Redworm, smaller than the
3. L. festivus, Sav. (= L. rubescens, Friend). — Almost
exactly like the last, but with papille on segment 15.
4. L. papillosus, Friend (= L. friendi, Cognetti). ao
Closely resembles No. 1.
144 THE ZOOLOGIST.
i 28 - 33
5. L. castaneus, Sav. (=L. purpureus, Hisen, &¢.). 59—s9
The smallest of all the true Lumbrici ; often difficult to distinguish
from such worms as Dendrobena mammalis and its allies.
II. ALLOLOBOPHORA.
Colour variable, girdle and tubercula extending over a variable
number of segments. Best known by the study of the head.
The prostomium does not cut entirely through the first segment.
The internal characters differ from those of Lumbricus.
6. Allolobophora longa, Ude. a The Longworm; often
confused with L. terrestris. The specific name longa is preferred
to terrestris as being less confusing.
27 — 34
31 — 33
both of which are sometimes included under the name A. caligi-
nosa, Savigny.
8. A. turgida, Eisen.
7. A. trapezoides, Duges. Very similar to the next,
28 — 34
31 : 33
III. AporrectTopEa.
In this genus the tubercula are on alternate seements, and
so it is linked on to the last genus by means of No. 8, which
closely resembles the next.
29 -— 35
31: 33
4 29 — 37
10. A. chlorotica, Savigny. 3;.33.3; The best known worm
9. Aporrectodea georgit, Mich.
of the class, sluggish, dirty green, but very variable in colour.
29 - 37
Il. A. cambrica, Friend. 3,733.3, Related to No. 10 as
No. 9 is to No. 8.
12. A. similis, Friend. =?
30 : 82: 34
TV. Hisenta.
Not easy to distinguish from the foregoing except by the
study of internal characters.
13. Hisenia fetida, Sav. A The well-known Brandling,
with red and yellow bands, found in manure-heaps.
hy : : Oy
14. H. veneta, Kosa (= EH. hibernica, Friend). 5 = =
the most variable worm we have. Half a dozen well-marked
varieties have been named by myself and others.
Perhaps
DISTRIBUTION OF BRITISH ANNELIDS. 145
25 — 32
15. H. rosea, Sav. 55-3, (=A. mucosa, Kisen). One or two
well-marked varieties occur.
V. DenpRoBmna.
An interesting group of worms, some of which are regularly
found in rotten tree-stumps. They are usually a ruddy brown
or purplish colour, similar to Lumbricus castaneus, but the head
does not entirely bisect the first segment, and the setz are
wider apart.
16. Dendrobena mammalis, Savigny (D. celtica, Rosa). a
17. D. submontana, Vejdovsky. —-
18. D. subrubicunda, Hisen. awe Most frequently found
with the Brandling.
19. D. arborea, Hisen. see This is the true Tree-worm.
20. D. octedra, Sav. (= D. beckii, Hisen). +35
21. D. alpina, Rosa. ==
VI. Brmastus.
The worms of this genus are best known by the absence of
tubercula on the girdle-segments, and the absence of sperma-
thece.
22. Bimastus eisent, Levinsen. Girdle-segments 25-32.
Head like that of Lumbricus castaneus.
23. B. constricta, Rosa. Girdle, 26 - 31.
24. B. beddardi, Mich. Girdle (24). 25-381.
VII. Ocrozasium.
Rather large worms, similar to Allolobophora, but with the
sete in eight rows, and girdles resembling Lumbricus.
25. Octolastum cyaneum, Sav. (= A. studiosa, Rosa). = = S
30 - 35
26. O. lacteum, Oerley (= A. profuga, Rosa). 31 — oA
27. O. rubidum, Oerley. = ;
; ‘ 28 - 35
28. O. intermedium, Friend. 3;—a4
29. O. gracile, Oerley. ae Closely resembles No. 27,
but seems to me to be a distinct species.
146 THE ZOOLOGIST.
VIII. Kopsima.
No definite external characters to distinguish it from some
of the foregoing genera. I include here one species only, so far
as Britain is concerned.
. : : 2 33 — 42
30. Hophila icterica, Savigny.
35—a, lt will be seen that
the girdle and tubercula cover a larger number of segments
than usual.
IX. HeLopritvs.
Worms which live in mud, and are at present little known.
31. Helodrilus oculatus, Hoff. So far it has never been
found with a girdle, unless Michaelsen is correct in associating
it with the next, which I am at present unable to do.
22 — 32
32. H. hermanni, Michaelsen. 35-35
the present
33. H. elongatus, Friend. Girdle extending from segment
15-24. It may prove to be a Sparganophilus or a near ally.
CONT ENTS.
Experiments with Salmonoids and Turbines, Prof. McIntosh, M.D., LL.D., 4
F.R.S., 241. :
The Development of the Snipe (with Illustration), F'. J. Stubbs, 265.
New Annelids, Rev. Hilderic Friend, F.L.S., éc., 278.
NOTES AND QUERIES :—
Mammauia.—The Lesser Shrew (Sorex minutus) in Yorkshire, George Bolam, 276.
AvES.—Nidification of the Whitethroat (Sylvia cinerea), Walter Greaves, 276.
The Grasshopper-Warbler (Locustella nevia), A. P. Saint, 277. Yellow
Wagtail (Motacilla rait), W. H. Parkin, 278. Alpine Swift in the New
Forest, Rh. S. Mitford, 278. Marsh-Harrier in Kent, Collingwood Ingram,
279.