42 THE WHALEBONE WHALES OF THE WESTERN NORTH ATLANTIC. 



Humpback and Scrag whales under cue name as in Gmelin's work. Turton omits 

 all bibliographical references.' 



While these various editions and translations of Linngeus's works were in 

 course of publication, numerous other systematic works on a more or less independent 

 basis made tlieir appearance. One of the earliest of these was O. F. Miiller's Pro- 

 droraus of the Zoology of Denmark (including Greenland), published in 1776." It 

 is a list of species under Latin binomials and polynomials, or diagnoses, with the 

 Norweeian, Icelandic, and Gi'eenlandic names added. The baleen whales are all 

 included in the genus Ualana, and the following have Gieenlaudic names : B. 

 mysticetus, Ai'bec or Arbavirksoak [Bowhead] ; B. physalus, Keporkak,'^ or 

 Kepoi'kaisoak [Finback] ; B. aUncans, Killeliuak [White whale]. 



The next important systeinatist, Erxleben, prefaces the list of cetacea in his ex- 

 cellent Systema Regni Animalis (1777)'* with the i-emark that the species are but 

 imperfectly known. The baleen whales are all retained in the genus Baiama, 

 and the species are the Linna3an ones with the addition of B. gibhosa. Of />'. 

 mysticetus he gives the habitat as toward the North Pole, chiefly about Green- 

 land and Spitzbergeu, and among his numerous authoiities cites Egede, Anderson, 

 and Crauz. He is in doubt about the Nordcaper, and does not separate it for- 

 mally from mysticetus. B. physalus is given as occurring " in the European and 

 American Ocean," and the authorities cited include Egede (Finne-fiske), Anderson, 

 and Cranz (Fiunfisch). Erxleben is in doubt about the Pflockfisch (Dudley's 

 IIum[)back), but tliinks it may belong with ^y^y.sa/»s, which is, of course, incorrect. 

 The habitat given is " about New Englaiul." He cites it at second hand from Klein, 

 Anderson, and others. The habitat of B. hoops is in " the northern ocean." 

 Anderson and Cranz (Jupiterfisch) are cited among the authorities. B. gibhosa is 

 Dudley's Scrag whale, which he takes at second hand from Klein, Anderson, and 

 other compilers. No habitat is given.^ 



Three years latei', in 1780, Otto Fabricius, who was for sevei'al years a 

 missionary in Greenland, published his well-known Fauna Grcenlandica, a very 

 concise and judicious work, and one whose influence on zoological nomenclature 

 has continued to the present day. In treating of the cetaceans it is haixlly to 

 be expected that he would escape errors entirely, especially considering the back- 

 ward state of cetology at the time, but his descriptions are for the most part 

 remarkably clear. 



'For Czenpinski's Totius Regni Animalis Genera in Classes et Ordines Linnsana methodo 

 digesta, 1778, see Allen's Bibliography, p. 468, No. 346. 



'^ MuLi.ER, O. F., Zoologiae Danicre Prodroraus, 1776, pp. viii, 6-8. 



° On p. viii of the introduction Miiller transfers this name to B. hoops [Humpback] on the 

 authority of Fabricius. 



*Pp. 601-611. 



' Dr. J. A. Allen in his Bibliography of Cetacea, p. 467, No. 341, remarks that B. gibhosa of 

 Erxleben is not the Scrag whale of Dudley, " as usually stated, whicli is one of the ' species obscurae ' 

 not formally recognized." This is an error. The only one of the " species obscurae " from Dudley 

 cited by Erxleben, on p. 617 is the " Dudleji Balana Klein." This is Dudley's sperm whale. On 

 the other hand, all the bibliographical citations under B. gihbosa and the diagnosis refer back to 

 Dudley's Scrag whale. 



