236 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1946 
that is to say, with whales from the collective rather than the individual 
point of view. 
The different sources of information and methods of research on 
these aspects of the biology of whales can be conveniently indicated 
by the following brief classification of the relevant literature. 
From time to time men engaged in the whaling industry have 
written of the natural history of whales. In the literature based on 
the old-time industry it is often difficult to sift accurate observations 
from exaggerated statements and misconceptions, but Scoresby’s “An 
Account of the Arctic Regions” (1820) contains observations of real 
value, and further useful information from first-hand experience of 
whaling is given, among others, by Scammon (1874), Risting (1912) 
and Ingebrigsten (1929). Research has also been carried out by the 
coordination of data at second hand from various sources, and such 
work is often of greater scientific value than the statements of whalers 
which are sometimes difficult to check. An important example is 
Esricht and Reinhardt’s monograph on the Greenland right whale 
(1861) which is still one of the best sources of information on this 
species. Kellogg’s summary (1929) of all available information on 
the migrations of whales is of special value, and contains an exhaus- 
tive list of references. Some papers by Harmer, Hjort, and others may 
also be included in this category. 
Since the development of modern whaling, individual biologists 
have sometimes made visits to shore stations and examined a limited 
number of whales. Observations were made on sizes, external char- 
acters, food, breeding, etc., and papers were published in which the 
results of these observations were generally combined with informa- 
tion obtained locally from the whalers, and with data from other 
sources and previous publications. Guldberg (1886) appears to have 
been the first to study the breeding cycle from dated foetal lengths. 
Cocks, Collett, and Haldane published a number of papers which need 
not be referred to here in full, True (1904) gave an exhaustive ac- 
count of the characters of the principal species, and the later work of 
Allen, Andrews, Barrett-Hamilton, Burfield, Hamilton, Hinton, 
Hjort and Ruud, Lillie, and Olsen will be referred to below. 
Some important recent research is based on the published statistics 
of the catches of the whaling industry and additional unpublished 
data contained in the log books of whaling ships. Hyjort, Lie and 
Ruud (1932-38) and Bergersen, Lie, and Ruud (1939, 1941) analyzed 
the catches in the Antarctic from year to year, with special reference 
to distribution and the effect of whaling on the stock. Townsend 
(1935) drew up a series of charts based on the log books of the old 
American whaleships and showing the positions of capture of thou- 
sands of right, humpback, and sperm whales; and on a similar basis 
