Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 2 (1898).djvu/341

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MAMMALIA OF GREAT YARMOUTH.
309

physalis the Pagets refer to this species as having "several times been taken in the Herring-nets." An example was stranded on Winterton beach, Jan. 12th, 1857, and was killed by the fishermen, who, in conjunction with two or three townspeople, exhibited about twenty tons of the carcase on the Church Plain, Yarmouth. The skull is preserved in the Museum of the College of Surgeons. Another at Happisburgh, March 1st, 1875.

Lesser Rorqual (B. rostrata). R.—A full-grown example, thirty feet in length, found its way into Yarmouth harbour on June 8th, 1891. It was attacked by several boats' crews, and, after an exciting hunt, during which the animal received severe wounds, mostly self-inflicted, it succumbed. It was drawn into the lifeboat shed and exhibited, afterwards being preserved and taken on tour to various parts of the country. On Dec. 8th, 1896, an adult dead specimen was stranded on Gorleston beach, where it became very speedily a most unwelcome and unsavoury object, and had to be buried in sections.

Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus). A.—The basal portion of the skull of a Sperm Whale stands in the north-west doorway of St. Nicholas Church. It was long known as the "Devil's Seat." "In the churchwardens' accounts for 1606 there is a charge of 8s. for painting this chair, which clearly proves its antiquity."[1] There remains little doubt, although the date is uncertain, that this example was killed in the latter part of the sixteenth century.

Beaked or Bottle-head Whale (Hyperoödon rostratum). R.—As Delphinus bidens the Pagets refer to "a large one caught in a Herring-net, November, 1816. A smaller specimen about twenty years before."

Grampus (Orca gladiator). R.R.—The Pagets refer to occurrences as follow:—"A specimen weighing 4 cwt. and 11 ft. long found alive on the beach, July 21st, 1823; another, 16 ft. long, caught about 1694,[2] according to Sir Thomas Browne." Another brought into Yarmouth June 25th, 1867; weight 14 cwt. An example, 7 ft. 6 in. long, taken into Lowestoft harbour on Nov.

  1. Southwell, 'Seals and Whales of the British Seas,' p. 87.
  2. As Sir T. Browne wrote apparently in the year 1662, and says "four years ago," this capture would take place 1658; in Wilkins's edit. iii. pp. 325 and 326, second paragraph.