41
NOTES ON THE WHALE, RUDOLPHI'S ROR-
QUAL (BAL.EANOPTERA BOREALIS, Lesson), AND
RECORD OF A MALE SPECIMEN STRANDED
AT TILBURY, ESSEX, AND OF A FEMALE
STRANDED IN THE HUMBER,1
By WALTER CROUCH, F.Z.S.
[Read December 17th, 1887.]
On the morning of the 19th October, 1887, a fairly grown male
specimen of Rudolphi's Rorqual was found stranded in the river
Thames, on the foreshore outside the entrance to the New Docks at
Tilbury. This is the second example of the species from the Essex
coast that we have had the good fortune to record in our publica-
tions within the last four years.
It was described by a correspondent in a local paper as "measur-
ing 35 feet 4 inches in length, its mouth 6 feet wide, and 18 feet 6
inches round the shoulders ; while its tail (flukes) is 8 feet across, and
its weight 6 tons 5 cwt. This surprising visitor was found soon after
daylight, lying with its snout nearly level with the top of the river
wall, so that it must have come up the river at high water. The
Dock yesterday was observed to be filled with a shoal of sprats,
while the shrimps and eels were congregated in large numbers ; and
no doubt while in pursuit of these, it ventured too far up the river."
It was subsequently towed off by a tug, and, with the aid of the
Dock Company's derrick, was placed upon three trucks and taken
to the Engineer's yard, where it was exhibited for a few days, and
whilst there was photographed (with its mouth open, showing the
baleen or whalebone) by Mr. Robert Hider, of Gravesend. A copy
of this photograph was exhibited at a meeting of the Zoological
Society on the 15th November, and its identification established by
Professor Flower, C.B., F.R.S., President.
Another photograph was taken by Mr. J. G. Wingrove, giving a
front view of the open mouth, with the baleen, the great fleshy
tongue, and the longitudinal plications or furrows of the throat. A
small wood cut also appeared in "The Graphic" of the 5th Novem-
ber, showing the animal suspended by the derrick. A fairly good
1 At our request, Dr. F. H. Davies kindly interested himself in the whale cast ashore at
Tilbury, and forwarded some remarks on the same, as we have already mentioned in the report of
the meeting on December 17th (see Essex Naturalist i. 279). Unfortunately an error had been
made as to the species of whale to which the Tilbury visitor belonged, and at the above men-
tioned meeting Mr. Crouch gave an account of the animal, setting this question of identification
at rest, which is embodied in the "Notes" here published. We have also to thank Dr. Davies
for loan of photographs of the animal.—Ed.