CATALOG OF LIVING WHALES 149 



Distribution: Arctic seas to Mediterranean and Rhode Island in the 

 North Atlantic, and to the Bering Sea and Japan in the North Pacific. 



Suborder MYSTICETI 

 Family ESCHRICHTIDAE 



Genus ESCHRICHTIUS Gray 



Cyphonotus Gray, 1850, Cat. Mamm. Brit. Mus., Cetacea, p. 18 [subgenus 

 of Balaena; type species: Balaena gibbosa Erxleben, by monotypy; 

 generic name preoccupied by Cyphonotus Fischer, 1823, a beetle, 

 Guerin-Meneville, 1838, a beetle; Cyphonotus Rafinesque, 1815, is a 

 nomen nudum]. 



Eschrichtius Gray, 1864, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., (3), 14: 350 [subgenus of 

 Megaptera; included species: Balaenoptera robusta Lilljeborg (type= 

 Balaena gibbosa Erxleben), Megaptera novaezealandiae Gray (—Megaptera 

 novaeangliae Borowski)]; 1866, Cat. seals and whales Brit. Mus., p. 131 

 [included species: Eschrichtius robustus Lilljeborg]. — Fraser and Purves, 

 1960, Bull. Brit. Mus. (Nat. Hist.), Zool., 7: 39, 85, 102, fig. 15 (ptery- 

 goid sinus), fig. 22 (air sac system), fig. 26 (table) [auditory system; 

 classification] . 



Rhachianectes Cope, 1869, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 21: 15 

 [type species: Agaphelus glaucus Cope (= Balaena gibbosa Exrleben), 

 by monotypy]. — Winge, 1942, Interrelat. Mamm. Gen., 3: 308 

 [characters ; classification] . 



Rachianectes Trouessart, 1898, Cat. Mamm., p. 1087 [misspelling of 

 Rhachianectes Cope] . 



Rhachionectes [sic], Winge, 1942, Interrelat. Mamm. Gen., 3: 239 [mis- 

 spelling of Rhachianectes Cope]. 



Type species : Balaena gibbosa Erxleben, by monotypy. 



Distribution : Arctic Ocean and North Pacific from 72° N. to Jalisco, 

 Mexico, on the east, Korea and Japan on the west; also formerly in the 

 North Atlantic. 



The report of " Rachianectes glaucus" stranded in Ceylon (Deraniyagala, 

 1948, Spolia Zeylanica, 25: 61) is based on secondhand information and 

 certainly refers to a balaenopterid. 



Eschrichtius gibbosus Erxleben 



"Scrag whale" Dudley, 1725, Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, pp. 



xxxiii, 259. 

 [Balcena] gibbosa Erxleben, 1777, Syst. Reg. Anim., p. 610. 

 Eschrichtius gibbosus, Van Diense and Junge, 1937, Temminckia, 2: 181 



[classification and nomenclature]. — U.S. Navy Oceanographic Office, 



