THE ORDER CETACEA. 145 



GENUS IV. 



THE ARNANACUS OR ARNANAK. 



Otho Fabricius, in his Fauna Gr'denlandica, describes 

 a species of cetacea, called by the Greenlanders Ar- 

 nanak, from the purgative qualities of its flesh and fat. 

 The Abbe Bonnaterre, in his " Cetologie,"* considered 

 it as a species of narwhale, and called it Monodou Spu- 

 rius ; but Count La Cepede, with more propriety, has 

 formed it into a new genus, with the following cha- 

 racter: — 



" One or two small crooked teeth in the upper jaw ; 

 no teeth in the lower jaw, with a fin on the back."f 



SPECIES. 



ARNANACUS GROENLANDICUS, 



OR 



THE GREENLAND ARNANAK.J 



A species considered allied to the narwhale, but not 

 perhaps, strictly speaking, belonging to the same genus ; 

 it has no teeth in the mouth, but from the extremity to 

 the upper mandible project two minute, obtuse, conic 

 teeth, a little curved at the tips, weak and not above an 

 inch long : the body is elongated, black, and cylindri- 

 cal. Besides the pectoral fins, it has a minute dorsal 



* Encycloped. Methodique. Art. Cetologie. p. 11. 

 t Hist. Nat. des Cetacea, p. 164. 



X Synonymes. — Monodon Spurius. Bonnaterre. Shaw. Gen. Zool. 

 vol. ii. part 2. Arnanak Gr'nenlandais. La Cepede. p. 164. 



L 



