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ROYAL FISH IN England and Wales, porpoises, dolphins and sturgeons stranded or caught in territorial waters are Royal fish and belong to the Crown, save where the carcass is washed ashore or stranded within the limits of a Manor in respect of which the title Royal Fish has passed from the Crown to the Lord of the Manor or in the Thames where the right to Royal Fish is vested in the Lord Mayor of London. In earlier years this right was of course an asset, oil and fats in general were short, a sturgeon is excellent eating and in pre-Reformation days porpoises were Iooked upon as fish and their meat could be eaten during Lent or on Fast days. Now the right is a liability and so far as the Crown is concerned the disposal or burial of carcasses of Royal Fish is the responsibility of the Ministry of Transport. In Scotland, presumably because the capture of Caa'ing whales or Black Fish (Globicephala melaena, Traill), was a regulär industry in some parts of the north, the small whales are not Royal Fish and the disposal of the carcasses of stranded whales of less than 25 feet in length is the liability of the local Sanitary Authority. Sturgeons of course are fish, but whales, dolphins and porpoises (cetaceans) are mammals modified to meet the needs of an entirely aquatic existence. Though porpoises and dolphins will ascend estuaries to some extent the British species are marine animals : fresh water dolphins are found in some of the larger rivers of Asia and America (Ganges, Indus, Amazon, etc.). These creatures spend their entire lives in fresh water and never pass out to sea. The other cetacea, living mainly in the open sea and travelling continually, cannot be kept under Observation as can most mammals. The habits and distribution of such of the larger whales as are the object of commercial exploitation are now fairly well known, thanks very largely to the voyages of various research ships. Just as birds are ringed so whales can be marked : a barbed and numbered dart is shot into the animal's blubber, where it remains causing no inflammation or discomfort, and in those species which are slaughtered for their oil " recoveries " are fairly frequent. This method cannot be used for the smaller species or those which for one reason or another—size, speed or rarity, etc., are not commercially exploited and of these less is known. A scheme for the systematic reporting of whales, dolphins and porpoises to the Natural History Museum came into Operation in 1913 and since that date over 1000 specific identifications have been made. Most of the reports concern commonly occurring species—this is true of all the Suffolk strandings which are set out below—but it has been found that some species previously thought to be rare are commoner than had been supposed, while two new species have been added to the British list. One of