134 A BOOK OF WHALES 



It may be thus defined : Head relatively smaller 

 than in B. mysticetus (f-f of body length) ; whale- 

 bone also shorter; ribs 15 ; 57 vertebrae.^ 



This list of synonyms includes the names given 

 to whales which are probably at most no more than 

 local races of but one species. But with all of them 

 it is by no means easy to be certain of the justice of 

 this view. Thus since Macleayius britannicus is only 

 known by its cervical vertebrae, it is conceivable, 

 though not in the least likely, that it is a different 

 form. But of those whales with different names that 

 much is known about, there seems to be but little 

 doubt that they are all one and the same species. 

 To believe in the existence of twenty species of Right 

 whales in addition to the Greenland Right whale 

 is too large a draft upon credulity to be honoured 

 at present. 



At every page in describing the natural history of 

 whales it is necessary to make statements with great 

 care, and to allow a due amount of qualification. It 

 may be that the large number of synonyms, which 

 it appears to me to be necessary to include in the 

 description of this species, are really proper varieties 

 at least, or even distinct forms. As has before been 

 stated, there does not appear much reason to accept 

 the numerous genera which Gray allowed. But as 

 to species the affair is different. Since these whales 

 do not live, or at least are not common, in the tropics, 



* See GULDBERG, " Zur Kenntnis des Nordkapers," Zoolog. Jahrb., 

 vii., p. 8. 



