A POLLACK WHALE FROM FLORIDA PRESENTED TO 

 THE NATIONAL MUSEUM BY THE MIAMI AQUARIUM 

 ASSOCIATION. 



By Gerrit S. Miller, Jr. 



Curator, Division of Mammals, United States National Museum. 



Among tlie whalebone whales found on the Atlantic coast of North 

 America the Pollack Wliale {Balmnoptera horealis) is the species 

 about whose occurrence the least is known. Hitherto the only re- 

 corded eastern American specimens have been some blades of baleen 

 from Newfoundland, in the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 

 and one jaw, several blades of baleen, and two ribs from Chatham 

 Light, Massachusetts, in the Museum of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History. The species was omitted from the main text of Dr. 

 F. W. True's elaborate paper on " The Whalebone Whales of the 

 Western North Atlantic; "^ and in Dr. Glover M. Allen's "Whale- 

 bone Whales of New England " ^ the description of it was chiefly 

 based on the published accounts of specimens from Europe and 

 Japan. 



The generosity of the Miami Aquarium Association has now made 

 it possible to examine the complete skeleton of an American Pollack 

 Wliale. This individual, an adult male (No. 236680, U. S. National 

 Museum), was cast ashore at Pablo Beach, about 18 miles east of 

 Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, in May, 1919. The skeleton 

 was prepared, according to directions sent from the United States 

 National Museum, by Mr. R. J. Wallace, of Jacksonville, who, after 

 exhibiting it during several months, finally offered it for sale. It 

 was then purchased by the Aquarium Association through the special 

 interest of ]\Ir. James Asbury Allison, president, and Mr. John Oliver 

 La Gorce, treasurer, and presented to the United States National 

 Museum in September, 1920. 



Good general accounts of the habits and distribution of the Pol- 

 lack Wliale are readily accessible in the paper by Dr. G. M. Allen 

 cited above, and in Mr. Roy C. Andrews's " The Sei Whale 



1 Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, vol. 33. August 29, 1904. 



2 Mem. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 8, No. 2. 1916. 



No. 2546.— Proceedings of U. S. National Museum. Vol. 66, Art. 9. 



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