Page:VCH Norfolk 1.djvu/283

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MAMMALS Hunstanton Hall, others in 1646, and a very ancient skull of one of these Cetaceans is used as a chair in Yarmouth Church, but I know of no modern instance of its having been met with here. 39. Bottle-nose Whale. Hyperoodon rostratus, Chemnitz. The bottle-nose whale has occurred several times on the Norfolk coast, generally the old female accompanied by its young coming southward in the autumn. The adult male has not been met with here. 40. Sowerby's Whale. M. P. Gervais. Meiopkdon h'tdem^ A female, from which a full-grown foetus was taken, was captured in the surf at Over- strand near Cromer, on the i8th December, 1892, vide Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., April, 1893. 41. Narwhal. Monodon monoceros, Linn. In Purchas his Pi/grimes, and most fully related in the 2nd edit. (Lond. fo. 161 4) p. 739, is an interesting account of the find- ing of one of these animals on the Norfolk coast so long ago as the year 1588. I know of no modern instance. 42. Grampus or Killer. Orca gladiator, Lac6p6de. In Mackerell's History of Lynn 'twelve grampuses ' are said to have come ashore there in 1636, another in 1680. Sir Thomas Browne (Wilkin's edit., iii. p. 325) mentions one at Yarmouth, about 1658, and from that time to the present they have been met with in many instances. Two very juvenile ex- amples were brought into Yarmouth on November 13th and 19th respectively, 1894 ; they were so nearly of an age as to render it probable that they were both the oflfspring of the same parent. 43. Pilot Whale. Globicephalus melas, Traill. A female was stranded at Mundesley on 29th January, 1879. 44. Porpoise. Phocana communis, F. Cuv. Common. 45. White-beaked Dolphin. Delphinus al- birostris, J. E. Gray. The white-beaked dolphin is of frequent occurrence on the Norfolk coast in the spring on its journey northward, and again in the autumn on its return south. I have met with a very young individual in the month of September and a female containing a foetus in June. 251