CLASS MAMMALIA.
79
The first record I can find of the species is in a
paper by Dr. J. E. Gray {Proc. Zool. Soc, 1864, p. 218), where
he mentions this rare Rorqual being found at Hope Reach, in
the Thames, near Gravesend, in the year 1859. The second
was stranded near Crixea, in the river Crouch, on the 8th
November, 1883. It was identified by Professor Flower and
described by him (Proc. Zool. Soe., 1883, p. 514 ; and Trans.
Essex Field Club, vol. iv., p. 3). The same example is
mentioned by Mr. A. H. Cocks (Zool., 1886, p. 129.) The third
was found dead at Tilbury, and was identified, described,
and drawn by Mr. Walter Crouch (Essex Nat, vol. ii., p 41).
The fourth was captured in the Medway, and, having passed
through the Thames estuary, must have been in Essex
waters. We can, therefore, claim it as an Essex specimen.
This also was identified and described by Mr. Walter Crouch
in the Rochester Naturalist for 1888, where a figure and sixteen
measurements are given (cf. Zool., 1888, p. 466).
Balaenoptera rostrata, Fabricius. Lesser Rorqual.
This is one of the best marked and most easily dis-
tinguished species of the family, and at the same time one of
the most common on our coasts. It has occurred in the
Thames several times. John Hunter, the famous anatomist,
describes in the Philosophical Transactions (1787, p. 448),
one caught upon the Dogger Bank, and afterwards purchased
by himself. Another, also recorded and figured (Zoologist,
1843, p. 33), is now preserved in the British Museum.
Sub-order ODONTOCETI.
Family PHYSETERIDAE.
Genus Physeter, Linn.
Physeter macrocephalus, Linn. Sperm Whale.
This tropical Whale has occasionally wandered to the shores
of our island. It is recorded in Bell's British Quadrupeds (2nd