NO. 1163. XOMENCLATUBE OF THE WHALEBONE WHALES— TR UE. 619 



THE BOWHEAD OR GREENLAND RIGHT WHALE. 



The first species described by Linnteus is Bahena Mysticetus (p. 75). 



The diagnosis " B. naribus flextiosh in medio cajnte, clorso impennV^ 

 is generic, rather than specific. The habitat — "/?t oceano Grcenland- 

 ico"' — points to the bowhead whale. The description is in part erroneous 

 and for the rest consists of generic or supergeneric characters. 



The bibliographic references include the works of Artedi, Wil- 

 longhby, Rondelet, Eay, and Martens, and Linn^us's own writings. I 

 discuss them for convenience in chronological order, as follows : 



"Rond. pise. 475 " = EONDELET, De Piscibus Marinus, 1554, p. 475. 



Rondelet gives the characters, though with some evident inaccura- 

 cies, of a species of right whale which occurs " on the coast of the 

 Aquitanian Sea and in India." He states explicitly that it has no fin 

 on the back {"In dorso nnllam habeP). 



As the Greenland whale, or bowhead, was unknown to the European 

 naturalists of Rondelet's time, it may be presumed that the species he 

 had in mind was the black whale or nordcaper. Gervais has called 

 special attention ^ to the following sentence, which, in his opinion, 

 points conclusively to the nordcaper: " Rostro est b7'evi, Jistula caret, 

 corio duro, nigra integitur sine pilis, cui hpades et ostrea hcerentia ah- 

 qiiando reperiuntur.^'' ^ 



Rondelet cites localities and facts indicating that he was familiar 

 with the whale fishery of the Basques in the Bay of Biscay, which had 

 for its object, as Fischer, Van Beneden, and others have shown, the 

 black whale or nordcaper. 



Rondelet writes under the heading " De Bahena vulgo dicta sive de 

 Musculo," and a large part of the chapter consists of a discussion as to 

 the identity of the Musculus of Pliny and other writers. 



"Will. icht. 35 " = WILLOUGHBY, IchthyograpMa (or Historia Piscium), 1686, p. 35. 



Willoughby in this place, under the heading '■'■Balcena Rondeletii, 

 Gesneri & aliornm — The Whale," merely repeats the observations of 

 Rondelet, John Faber (the expositor of Hernandez's natural history of 

 Mexico), Polydorus Virgil (Bishop of Bath and Wells, 1502 to 1.555), 

 and others, and adds some comments of his own on the various records. 

 These records ajipear to refer severally to the right whales, the fin- 

 backs, and the humpback, 



No attempt is made to formulate a diagnosis of any particular 

 species. 



' Comptes Rendus, o June, 1871, pp. 666, 667. See also Van Beneden, Hist. Nat. 

 des C^taces des Mers d'Europe, 1889, p. 7. 



^Translation: It is provided with a short beak; the blowhole is wanting; it is 

 covered with a hard black skin, without hairs, to Avhich barnacles and oysters are 

 sometimes found adhering. 



