THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
233
Mr. Glegg, in proposing a vote of thanks to the authors, referred to a
Bee-eater which had been seen to eject from the mouth the remains of a beetle.
Mr. Horn, in seconding, remarked that apparently no fish-scales or bones
had been noticed in the Herons' pellets, probably owing to their rapid solu-
tion by the bird's digestive juices.
The authors replied to several points raised during the discussion, and
the thanks of the Meeting were duly accorded to them. The President, in
putting the motion, narrated how a Robin had come into his house, had gaped,
and then vomited—evidently a pellet; but, unfortunately, the "mess"
had been carefully cleared up before he was informed of the occurrence.
The meeting then adjourned.
VISIT TO THE BRITISH MUSEUM (NATURAL HISTORY):—
(556TH MEETING).
SATURDAY, I3TH JANUARY, 1923.
This visit was arranged, at the kind invitation of Dr. W. T. Caiman,
F.R.S., for the purpose of studying, under his guidance, the exhibited series
of Cetacea in the Whale Gallery.
The party (a very small one, owing to the prevalence of thick fog through-
out the morning) was received by Dr. Caiman at 2 o'clock in the Large Cen-
tral Hall, and was at once conducted to the Whale Gallery.
Dr. Caiman remarked that whales are classified in two groups—those
with whalebone only in the mouth and no teeth (the Whalebone Whales),
and those possessing true teeth (the Toothed Whales).
Whales were descended from land-mammals which, probably in Eocene
times, had taken to an aquatic life, and they had in consequence undergone
extensive modifications ; the general fishlike outline, and the development
of a dorsal fin which served to keep the animal on an even keel, were examples
of the general rule that like conditions of environment bring about similarity
of structure. Whales had lost their ancestral coating of hair, which was no
longer serviceable to them, they being kept warm by the thick layer of fat
(blubber) underneath the skin ; the Rorqual yet preserves vestiges of hairs
on its chin. The hind limbs of the whales are reduced to vestiges, a rudi-
mentary hip-girdle, with the leg-bones represented only by cartilage, being
present in the common Rorqual, though other whales have actual leg bones
beneath the skin. The removal of the nostrils to the top of the head (the
"blow-hole") is another modification due to their mode of life as aquatic
animals.
Dr. Caiman gave an interesting sketch of the history of the whale-fisheries.
He said that the Basques were the first whalers of whom we had cognisance,
they hunted the whale known as the Biscay Whale, or the North Atlantic
Right-Whale (Balaena biscayensis) from small boats in the Bay of Biscay.
This fishery persisted from the 10th to the 15th century, until the whales
were killed off from these waters. Nowadays the Biscay Whale has to be
sought far away in the North Atlantic. In the 16th century the Dutch took
up the trade, fishing off Spitsbergen and employing Basque harpooners ;
the English soon followed suit ; it therefore happens that certain techni-
cal terms employed to-day in whale-fishing (among others the words "har-
poon" and "cachalot") are of Basque origin. At the present day the